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THE 

SOCIAL  EVOLUTION 
OF  RELIGION 

By 

GEORGE  WILLIS  COOKE 

\\ 


BOSTON 

The  Stratford  Company,  Publishers 

1920 


Copyright  1 
The  STBATFOBD  CO.,  Publisher* 
Boston,  Mass. 


The  Alpine  Press,  Boston,   Mass.,  U.   S.  A. 


Habitation  of 

THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

To  the  memory  of  LUCY  NASH  COOKE,  1848- 
1919,  who  walked  by  my  side  for  forty- 
seven  years, — whose  religion  was  love,  whose 
life  was  fidelity,  and  whose  ethical  motive 
was  devotion  to  the  good  of  others. 


iii 

415774 


PREFACE 

IN  this  volume  have  been  stated  the  final  results  of  fifty  years 
devoted  to  the  study  of  religion  in  its  varied  manifestations. 
Accepting  for  many  years  the  generally  accredited  interpreta- 
tions of  Christianity,  I  have  gradually  diverged  from  them  as 
the  result  of  a  growing  interest  in  anthropology,  ethnology, 
psychology,  and  comparative  religion. 

These  chapters  were  originally  read  to  a  small  group  of 
persons  meeting  in  a  private  parlor  in  Boston,  under  the  auspices 
of  the  local  branch  of  The  Free  Religious  Association  of  Amer- 
ica. Not  all  which  was  written  was  read  at  any  of  these  meet- 
ings, but  often  many  pages  were  omitted  in  order  that  the 
lecture  might  be  followed  by  questions  and  discussions. 

The  lectures  have  been  carefully  corrected,  many  pages 
excised,  many  more  pages  added,  and  the  whole  rewritten  and 
thoroughly  revised. 

My  friend,  John  Haynes  Holmes,  minister  of  the  Community 
Church  in  the  city  of  New  York,  has  read  the  whole  of 
the  manuscript,  given  me  the  benefit  of  his  suggestions  and  cor- 
rections, and  written  the  foreword,  which  states  briefly  and 
pertinently  that  at  which  I  have  aimed  in  my  book. 

G.  W.  C. 


Contents 

Preface         v 

Foreward ix 

Introduction xv 

I.    The  Social  Transmission  of  Human  Experience     .  1 

II.    The  Creative  Genius  of  Social  Man       ...  52 

III.  Communal  and  Tribal  Religion      ....  109 

IV.  Feudal  Religion 148 

V.    National  Religion 189 

VI.    International  Religion 229 

VII.    Universal  Religion 291 

VIII.    Religion  as  Cosmic  and  Human  Motive        .        .  337  s 

Appendix  to  Chapter  I 405 

Index  411 


Vll 


FOREWORD 


THE  changes  which  took  place  during  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury in  man's  understanding  of  the  world,  and  of  himself 
as  a  denizen  of  this  world,  were  undoubtedly  the  most  remark- 
able in  the  annals  of  human  history.  They  were  nothing  short 
of  revolutionary  in  every  department  of  knowledge.  Old  ideas 
went,  and  new  ideas  came,  with  a  rapidity  which  was  bewilder- 
ing. Scientific  and  philosophic  dogmas,  long  accepted  as  fun- 
damental, were  suddenly  seen  to  be  little  better  than  myths; 
and  speculations,  at  first  regarded  as  phantasmal  as  they  were 
degrading,  were  demonstrated  to  be  true  with  a  terrible  finality. 
What  was  begun  centuries  before,  in  the  so-called  "Revival  of 
Learning",  was  now  carried  through  to  heights  of  vision  and 
depths  of  inquiry,  which  would  have  amazed  the  original  inno- 
vators of  that  great  period.  Observation,  investigation  and 
experimentation  —  ceaseless  accumulation  of  data,  and  daring 
hypothetical  generalization  upon  the  basis  of  this  data  —  in- 
sistence upon  facts  and  humble  surrender  to  the  leading  of 
facts  —  in  one  word,  the  emancipated  intellect,  equipped  with 
the  modern  scientific  methods  of  inquiry,  suddenly  "made  all 
things  new."  The  world  as  it  was,  straightway  took  the  place 
of  the  world  as  men  had  imagined,  or  wanted,  it  to  be.  With 
the  result  that,  in  the  space  of  a  single  generation,  so  to  speak, 
the  whole  volume  of  human  knowledge  was  written  anew,  with 
indefinite  extensions  and  marvelous  transformations  of  material ! 
In  no  one  department  of  inquiry,  perhaps,  was  this  change 
more  remarkable  —  certainly,  in  none  more  startling  —  than  in 
that  of  religion.  A  score  of  separate  influences  worked  more 

ix 


FOREWORD 

or  less  unconsciously  together  to  shake  down,  as  Samson  the 
temple  of  the  Philistines,  the  venerated  structure  of  what  was 
almost  universally  accepted  as  divine  revelation.  The  higher 
criticism  of  the  Bible,  the  new  investigations  of  church  history 
and  the  life  of  Jesus,  the  study  of  comparative  religion,  the 
disclosures  of  archeological  research,  the  facts  of  anthropology, 
sociology,  psychology,  all  combined  to  shatter  every  accepted 
doctrine  of  the  origin,  development  and  significance  of  religion, 
and  to  present  anew  the  whole  problem  of  this  strange  phe- 
nomenon in  the  life  of  man.  One  has  only  to  name  a  few  of  the 
classic  books  of  this  period  —  Wellhausen  's  '  *  History  of  Israel ' ', 
Strauss 's  "Life  of  Jesus",  Frazer's  ''Golden  Bough",  Tylor's 
"Primitive  Culture",  Sir  Henry  Maine's  "Ancient  Law"  and 
"Early  History  of  Institutions",  Spencer's  "Principles  of  Psy- 
chology" and  "Principles  of  Sociology",  Max  Miiller's  "Sacred 
Books  of  the  East",  Fiske's  "Cosmic  Philosophy" — to  see  some- 
thing of  the  range  of  the  influences  which  were  at  work,  and 
the  fundamental  character  of  the  results  which  they  were  achiev- 
ing. Religion,  as  man  had  known  it  for  nineteen  hundred  years, 
was  now  become  a  myth.  The  fact,  as  contrasted  with  the  myth, 
was  now  being  disclosed  —  slowly,  imperfectly,  with  infinite 
labor  and  patience,  much  as  a  buried  temple  or  tomb  is  disclosed 
by  the  excavator's  spade  —  but  with  the  certainty  that  in  due 
season  the  revelation  would  be  complete. 

It  is  only  in  this,  our  time,  that  the  permanent  significance 
of  these  years  of  research  in  the  field  of  religion  is  becoming 
apparent.  Data  gathered  in  a  dozen  different  laboratories,  have 
long  been  familiar.  Only  recently  has  it  become  possible  to 
synthesize  and  generalize,  and  thus  to  present,  with  some  degree 
of  wholeness,  the  new  picture  of  religion  as  a  reality  of  human 
experience.  What  this  picture  is,  may  be  variously  described. 
But  it  is  probable  that  we  come  nearest  to  the  truth,  and  most 


FOREWORD 

vividly  set  forth  the  nature  of  the  change  from  old  conceptions 
to  new,  when  we  say  that  we  see  religion  to-day  as  a  human 
product  rather  than  as  a  divine  revelation.  Religion,  evolved 
from  below,  instead  of  imparted  from  above,  is  the  transforma- 
tion which  modern  investigation  has  worked. 

In  former  days,  it  was  believed  that  Christianity  was  a 
direct,  perfect  and  final  inspiration  from  God.  In  the  old  dis- 
pensation, Moses  had  received  from  the  hands  of  Jehovah  the 
two  tables  of  the  law.  In  the  new  dispensation,  Jesus,  the  only 
begotten  Son  of  the  Father,  had  descended  straight  out  of 
heaven,  to  bring  salvation  unto  men.  From  this  standpoint, 
Christianity  was  the  one  true  religion.  It  stood,  like  Sinai  in 
the  desert,  a  single  mountain,  on  which  man  could  climb  to,  and 
at  last  meet  with,  God. 

The  discovery  and  sympathetic  study  of  other  great  reli- 
gions —  Confucianism,  Buddhism,  Zoroastrianism,  Mohamme- 
danism—  changed  all  this.  It  was  seen  that  these  other  reli- 
gions had  claims  to  divine  origin  identical  with  those  of 
Christianity.  It  was  recognized  that  the  theology  and  ethics 
of  these  religions  were  not  altogether  dissimilar  to  those  asso- 
ciated with  the  prophets  of  Israel  and  the  apostles  of  Christ.  It 
was  as  though  the  single  mountain  peak  were  become  a  range  of 
summits,  each  one  of  which  touched  heaven,  and  shone  with 
the  radiance  of  divine  splendor. 

^X^Then  came  the  discovery  that  behind  these  great  religions 
were  long  periods  of  psychological  and  social  development.  The 
prophets  were  not  isolated  figures,  but  children  of  their  time 
and  race.  The  sacred  literatures  were  not  words  from  heaven, 
out  myth,  folk-lore,  legend,  redolent  of  the  soil  of  earth  and 
of  the  heart  of  man.  These  mountains,  after  all,  did  not  meet 
the  sky.  Climb  their  slopes  —  and  it  was  the  substance  of  the 
level  plains  from  which  they  rose,  that  met  your  feet.  Stand 


FOREWORD 

upon  their  summits  —  and  you  touched  beneath,  the  granite 
frame-work  of  the  planet,  while  above,  and  far  beyond,  the 
heavens  still  escaped  you.  The  significant  thing  about  these 
peaks,  after  all,  was  that  they  were  rooted  in  earth,  and  thus 
a  part  of  the  native  structure  of  the  globe.  On  them,  you 
breathed  a  clearer  air;  from  them,  you  saw  a  wider  horizon. 
But  the  revelation  was  from  below  upward,  and  not  from  above 
_/cLownward.  J[he_origins  of  religion,  in  other  wjorjj^jwei^jiuman, 
not  diving 

There  are  various  lines  of  approach  to  this  great  truth- — 
various  departments  of  knowledge  which  contribute  data  in 
emonstration  of  the  thesis.  Archeology  is  one.  The  study 
of  sacred  literatures,  with  their  common  background  of  mythol- 
\ogy,  is  another.  Psychology  presents  a  fertile  field  of  inquiry, 
as  see  Starbuck's  "  Psychology  of  Religion ",  and  Professor 

es's  great  work  on  "Varieties  of  Religious  Experience. " 
All  these,  however,  must  yield  precedence  to  sociology.  The 
hidden  tomb,  the  parchment  manuscript,  the  confession  of  the 
individual  soul,  are  all  important.  But  not  until  we  study  the 
race,  look  upon  man  as  a  member  of  a  group,  follow  step  by 
step  the  evolution  of  society,  do  we  come  to  the  heart  of  the 
problem.  Then,  as  if  by  magic,  religion  takes  its  place  as  a 
product  of  social  experience,  a  form  of  social  organization,  an 
expression  of  social  need.  Sociology,  as  Herbert  Spencer  long 
ago  discovered,  holds  the  key  to  the  age-old  mystery  of  God. 

It  is  this  social  approach  to  the  problem  which  characterizes 
this  book  by  George  Willis  Cooke.  Here  are  presented  the  human 
origins  of  religion  in  terms  of  the  social  history  of  the  race. 
Two  factors  combine  to  make  this  a  work  not  only  of  intense 
interest  to  the  student,  but  of  first-rate  importance  to  the  average 
reader. 

£•• 

xii 


FOBEWOED 

On  the  one  hand,  we  have  in  this  volume  an  exhaustive  and 
accurate  presentation  of  the  entire  field  of  modern  study  of 
religion.  The  sociological  aspect  of  the  problem  holds  first  place 
throughout,  as  of  preeminent  importance ;  but  other  aspects  are 
not  neglected.  What  the  mind  of  man  has  accomplished  in  this 
field  in  the  last  one  hundred  years,  is  surveyed  and  summarized. 
We  have  here  a  rich  accumulation  of  first-hand  material,  a  test- 
ing of  the  worth  of  this  material  as  evidence  by  the  best  stand- 
ards of  modern  scholarship,  and  a  judicious  and  unbiased  pre- 
sentation of  the  conclusions  to  which  this  evidence  leads  us. 
The  book  is  the  fruit  of  a  life-time  of  patient  and  exhaustive 
inquiry.  It  accomplishes  to  no  small  degree  in  the  sociological 
field,  what  James  accomplished  so  superbly  in  the  psychological 
field  in  his  "Varieties  of  Eeligious  Experience."  Furthermore, 
it  serves  to  correct  the  dangerous  one-sidedness  of  that  unique 
masterpiece. 

Secondly,  this  book  is  important  for  its  study  of  what  the 
discovery  of  the  human  origins  of  religion  is  going  to  mean  to 
religion  in  the  future.  Here  the  author  turns  from  a  study 
of  the  facts  of  yesterday  to  a  study  of  the  prospects  of  tomorrow. 
That  the  result  is  revolutionary,  is  stating  the  truth  mildly. 
The  thought  of  God,  the  function  of  worship  and  prayer,  the 
hope  of  immortality,  the  place  of  the  church  in  social  life  —  all 
these  are  cast,  as  it  were,  into  the  melting  pot.  And  out  of  it, 
is  seen  to  come  a  religion- as  different  from  that  of  the  older 
time  as  the  new  world  which  is  destined  to  emerge  out  of  the 
Great  War,  is  different  from  the  world  before  the  war.  Chapter 
VIII  is  perhaps  the  most  important,  as  it  is  certainly  the  most 
interesting,  in  the  book.  Mr.  Cooke  is  prophet  quite  as  much  as 
scholar,  and  it  is  not  too  much  to  surmise  that,  for  this  final 
chapter  of  forecast,  the  rest  of  the  book  was  written. 

xiii 


FOREWORD 

It  has  been  my  happy  privilege  to  read  this  work  in  manu- 
script, and  discuss  it  with  its  author.  I  have  been  instructed  and 
inspired  by  this  experience.  It  is  a  pleasure  to  take  advantage 
of  the  opportunity  granted  me  by  Mr.  Cooke,  to  commend  the 
book  to  that  wide  circle  of  readers  which  it  is  sure  to  find. 

JOHN  HAYNES  HOLMES. 
New  York  City. 


xiv 


INTRODUCTION 

r  I  ^HE  universality  of  religion  is  a  generally  accepted  fact. 
I  The  statement  has  been  often  made  that  certain  bands  or 
tribes  were  without  any  religious  practice  or  belief;  but  it  has 
been  shown  that  this  conclusion  is  a  mistaken  one.  An  ac- 
quaintance with  the  language  of  a  people,  and  an  intimate 
knowledge  of  its  customs  and  institutions,  is  essential  to  a  true 
understanding  of  its  religious  life  and  practices.  When  such 
knowledge  has  been  secured,  it  has  been  discovered  that  the  reli- 
gionless  people  has  not  only  a  religion,  but  it  may  be  much  given 
jto  the  exercise  of  religious  rites  and  ceremonies. 

Religion  takes  the  widest  possible  range  of  expression,  and 
in  its  earlier  manifestations  is  not  to  be  judged  by  the  intellec- 
tual demands  of  the  higher  civilizations.  The  religion  of  primi- 
tive peoples  is  almost  invariably  expressed  in  rituals  and  cults, 
that  is,  in  something  done,  and  not  in  something  believed.  It 
may  be  truthfully  said  that  such  peoples  have  no  beliefs  as 
such,  no  purely  intellectual  or  philosophical  interpretation  of 
life  and  its  experiences.  They  dance  or  sing  or  act  their 
religion;  and  they  give  it  expression  in  festivals,  ceremonials, 
and  rituals. 

The  religion  of  the  primitive  or  undeveloped  peoples  is 
emotional  and  not  intellectual,  poetical  and  not  scientific. 
Wherever  we  find  such  a  people  and  its  religion,  whether  in  the 
present  or  in  a  more  or  less  remote  past,  we  may  discover,  if 
we  give  close  attention  to  the  facts  presented  before  us,  that  the 
attitude  manifested  is  one  of  feeling  and  not  one  of  reason. 
Such  peoples  do  not  deal  with  principles  but  with  persons, 
not  with  ideas  but  with  activities. 

xv 


INTRODUCTION 

Since  organic  life  and  humanity  have  had  a  definite 
beginning,  it  must  be  supposed  that  religion  also  began  at  some 
remote  period  in  the  history  of  mankind.  We  do  not  know 
under  what  conditions  or  at  what  stage  in  human  evolution  it 
took  its  rise.  Perhaps  we  may  be  justified  in  assuming  that 
religion  originated  with  man,  and  that  it  has  been  in  existence 
ever  since  man  became  truly  man.  Indications  of  awe,  rever- 
ence, and  other  emotional  attitudes  toward  the  environing  world, 
have  been  attributed  to  animals;  and  it  is  therefore  probable 
religion  began  with  the  beginnings  of  human  experience.  This 
means  that  religion  had  a  most  lowly  origin  and  that  it  was  at 
first  an  attitude  rather  than  a  reality,  an  emotion  finding  com- 
munal expression. 

It  must  be  recognized  that  all  the  evidence  is  in  favor  of 
the  conclusion  that  the  earliest  manifestations  of  religion  were 
those  of  a  group,  and  not  those  of  individuals.  The  child  does 
not  know  himself  as  an  individual  for  the  first  two  or  three 
years  of  his  life ;  and,  in  fact,  he  does  not  attain  full  conscious- 
ness of  self,  with  capacity  to  assert  his  right  to  a  separate 
intellectual  existence,  until  he  reaches  the  age  of  puberty.  In 
the  same  way,  primitive  man  may  be  an  individual  from  the 
first,  but  the  attaining  of  personality  comes  only  at  a  com- 
paratively late  period,  as  one  of  the  results  of  the  evolution  of 
civilization.  The  primitive  man  and  woman  are  members  of  a 
group,  and  they  live  its  life  without  recognition  of  an  existence 
other  than  it  can  give  them.  Its  life  is  their  life,  its  emotions 
their  emotions,  its  religion  their  religion.  They  have  not  the 
mental  capacity  for  separating  themselves  in  any  manner  from 
its  rituals  and  its  myths,  its  customs  and  its  tabus;  and  they 
have  no  wish  to  do  so.  In  fact,  they  are  quite  incapable  of 
seeing  the  group  life  and  the  group  religion  in  perspective  or 

xvi 


INTRODUCTION 

of  giving  them  an  objective  interpretation.  In  large  degree  the 
group  life  is  coterminous  with  the  individual  life,  and  the 
individual  emotion  is  emphatically  that  of  the  group.  The  evi- 
dence makes  it  quite  certain  that  the  individual  of  the  primitive  / 
group  recognizes  himself  only  in  his  communal  relations,  and 
in  these  relations  he  realizes  the  whole  of  his  being. 

Because  man  begins  his  life  as  a  member  of  a  group,  and, 
under  the  environing  conditions  of  the  earliest  periods  of  his 
existence,  could  have  survived  in  no  other  manner,  we  have  a 
reason  why  from  the  first  he  was  religious,  that  is,  conceived  of 
the  environing  world  emotionally.  That  world,  be  it  understood, 
was  not  the  universe  known  to  us;  but  simply  and  merely  the 
group  to  which  he  belonged,  and  its  immediate  environing  world. 
In  that,  and  by  means  of  that,  all  life,  and  all  nature,  were 
known  to  him.  The  circle  of  the  world  was  the  circle  of  the 
group.  All  outside  the  group,  whether  of  the  world  that  gave 
food  and  shelter,  and  contact  with  plants  and  animals,  or  inside 
of  the  world  experienced  in  the  relations  of  sex  and  childhood, 
and  rituals  which  expressed  the  emotional  content  of  the  group 
life,  was  interpreted  in  terms  of  the  group  life  and  its  demands 
as  a  group.  In  this  communal  existence  the  primitive  man 
found  the  whole  of  his  experience  and  the  manner  of  his  inter- 
pretation of  every  phase  of  the  world  around  him. 

In  the  fact  that  religion  began  as  an  expression  of  the 
group  life,  and  as  an  emotional  manifestation  of  its  experiences, 
we  may  find  reason  for  asserting  that  fundamentally  all  religions 
are  the  same,  and  answer  to  the  same  demands  of  man's  nature. 
Although  it  is  true  that  the  more  developed  religions  began  at 
a  period  remote  from  the  conditions  under  which  all  the  primi- 
tive religions  had  their  origin,  yet  none  of  them  but  were  in- 
fluenced by  those  traditions  or  survivals  which  came  from  the 
earliest  period.  All  religion  is  essentially  communal  or  social, 

xvii 


J 


INTRODUCTION 

the  expression  of  what  belongs  primarily  to  the  community  and 
not  to  the  individual.  The  emotional  nature  of  religion  gives 
unity  to  all  its  varied  manifestations.  Human  nature,  in  its 
primary  qualities,  is  the  same  wherever  found,  in  whatever 
religion  or  period;  and  therefore  this  expression  of  it  that  we 
call  religion  answers  everywhere  to  the  same  needs,  to  the  same 
sense  of  wonder  and  awe,  to  the  same  demand  for  the  interpre- 
tation of  life  and  death.  No  beliefs  or  practices  of  the  most 
advanced  religions  but  have  their  correlates  in  the  more  primi- 
tive practices  and  rituals  of  the  communal  or  group  religions. 
Religion,  wherever  manifest,  answers  to  the  same  human  de- 
mands; and  it  reaches  the  responding  satisfaction  by  quite 
similar  methods  and  to  the  same  primary  ends. 

Any  genuine  study  of  religion,  in  its  universal  manifesta- 
tions, demands  sympathy  and  mental  responsiveness  to  what  is 
best  in  its  several  expressions,  whether  crude  or  advanced.  This 
may  require  some  degree  of  aloofness  from  all  that  is  dogmatic 
and  authoritative  in  any  one  religion.  He  who  regards 
Buddhism  or  Christianity  or  Islam  as  final,  as  the  one  only 
religion  which  is  true  and  revealed  or  as  having  any  absolute 
value  for  those  who^accept  it,  is  not  in  a  position  to  appreciate 
other  manifestations  of  religion  at  their  true  social  significance. 
It  is  for  this  reason  that  an  attitude  of  unconcern  about  the 
dogmatic  values  of  any  religion,  as  relates  to  individual  destiny, 
appears  to  be  essential  to  a  wise  and  just  appreciation  of  the 
several  phases  through  which  religion  has  passed  from  the  period 
of  the  earliest  man  to  its  latest  manifestations  in  our  own  day. 
No  demand  is  made  upon  the  individual  that  he  shall  discard 
all  religion,  or  that  he  shall  turn  aside  from  that  into  which 
he  was  inducted  in  childhood;  but  that  he  shall  become  undog- 
matic,  appreciative  of  all  that  is  human,  and  willing  to  consider 
sympathetically  whatever  ritual  or  creed  has  meaning  for  the 

xviii 


INTRODUCTION 

life  of  another  community  than  his  own.  Whatever  gives  mean- 
ing  and  purpose  and  joy  to  the  life  of  any  individual  may  be 
regarded  with  respect,  and  should  be  studied,  if  studied  at  all, 
with  sympathy  and  appreciation. 

The  contention  here  set  forth  is,  that  all  religions  are  true 
to  those  who  accept  them  as  true,  and  to  the  extent  to  which 
they  give  meaning  to  the  life  of  the  group  or  the  individual. 
Even  the  very  crudest  religions,  those  of  the  peoples  the  least 
developed,  show  forth  qualities  that  serve  a  noble  human  pur- 
pose. Even  such  religions  make  men  and  women  better  and 
\wiser  in  their  relations  to  life  and  to  one  another.  All  religions 
have  their  heroes  and  their  saints,  and  the  good  may  be  found 
wherever  man  exists.  If  any  one  religion  developed  the  best  life 
in  all  its  followers,  we  need  not  hesitate  to  accept  it  as  prefer- 
able to  all  others ;  but  when  we  find  the  highest  type  of  conduct 
in  the  most  primitive  groups  and  under  the  crude  conditions  of 
life  they  present  and  all  the  way  up  through  every  religion  to 
the  most  developed  in  other  respects,  we  may  conclude  that  no 
ritual  or  creed  is  final.  We  need  but  look  about  us  to  see  that 
Christianity  has  no  monopoly  of  virtue  in  its  followers,  and 
that  it  cannot  make  better  men  and  women  than  are  to  be  found 
-developed  by  Buddhism  and  Mohammedanism.  A  noble  life 
must  be  regarded  as  the  true  test  for  any  and  every  religion; 
and  noble  lives  are  to  be  found  throughout  the  world,  in  all 
communities  and  under  all  religions.  If  we  accept  this  test,  we 
must  say  that  all  religions  are  true  as  to  the  results  they  pro- 
duce. It  must  also  be  said  that  all  are  false  or  imperfect,  in 
so  far  as  they  fail  to  make  sure  of  the  good  life  for  all  who 
accept  them.  Even  the  most  highly  developed  religions  fail 
to  realize  their  ideals,  their  standards  of  conduct,  in  the  lives 
of  all  who  receive  their  rituals  and  their  creeds. 

xix 

C^C 


INTRODUCTION 

In  recognizing  these  defects  in  the  more  advanced  religions, 
we  must  not  forget  that  all  of  them  are  shot  through  and  through 
with  survivals  from  the  past,  even  from  a  very  remote  period 
in  human  history.  Eeligion  is  a  development,  has  had  a  very 
prolonged  evolution,  shows  everywhere  the  results  of  its  con- 
tinuous advancement  or  degeneracy;  and  that  what  hinders 
its  higher  development,  or  may  be  properly  regarded  as  its 
defects  is  in  no  small  measure  the  result  of  this  process  of  growth 
through  the  ages. 

The  religion  of  to-day  shows  on  every  hand  the  results 
which  come  from  the  attempt  to  put  new  wine  into  old  bottles 
or  to  attach  fresh  rituals  and  beliefs  to  the  old  terms  and  tradi- 
tions. An  illustration  of  this  may  be  found  in  the  continued 
use  of  the  word  "salvation"  for  what  in  no  sense  connects  itself 
with  the  origins  of  that  term  or  whatever  it  connoted  in  earlier 
ages  of  the  history  of  religion.  Even  H.  G.  Wells  uses  this 
word  with  meanings  which  have  not  the  slightest  connection 
with  its  earlier  uses.  We  do  not  now  believe  that  men  are  to 
be  saved  from  the  dungeons  of  a  tyrannous  king  or  the  place 
of  torment  of  a  vengeful  God.  We  do  not  believe  that  any  im- 
pending dark  and  gloomy  fate  hangs  over  us  from  which  we 
are  to  escape  by  means  of  magic  or  the  recitation  of  rituals  or 
the  belief  in  cruel  and  awful  creeds;  and  yet  we  continue  to 
use  a  word  which  in  all  its  connotations,  historically  speaking, 
means  something  of  this  kind  as  impending  over  us.  Therefore 
it  is  desirable  that  we  should  discard  a  word  having  these  impli- 
cations. No  modernization  of  it  can  cause  the  obliteration  of 
the  historic  background  of  the  word. 

The  same  is  true  of  many  other  religious  words  and 
phrases,  that  we  have  given  them  meanings  which  deny  their 
historical  origin  and  connections.  Such  a  word  is  "sacrifice," 
which  no  longer  means  the  killing  of  animals  or  men  as  offer- 

xx 


INTRODUCTION 

ings  to  a  God  capable  of  demanding  such  a  price  paid  to  appease 
his  wrath  toward  men,  as  not  having  in  some  minute  detail 
obeyed  his  arbitrary  commands.  We  may  recognize  that  our 
sacrifices  of  to-day  are  those  of  the  suppression  of  selfishness, 
the  giving  freely  of  our  substance  to  relieve  the  needs  of  our 
jellows;  but  not  thus  can  we  escape  the  tragical  and  awful 
history  which  has  brought  us  this  word  and  its  historic  signi- 
fications through  the  ages.  As  we  study  that  history  we  may 
rightly  rebel  against  the  use  of  a  term  with  such  a  fateful  and 
dark  background  of  vengeance  and  cruelty  and  disregard  of 
human  welfare. 

When  we  study  thoroughly  such  instances  in  the  evolution 
of  religion  we  may  query  whether  it  is  capable  of  correcting 
its  own  defects,  and  of  eliminating  by  its  own  initiative  the 
limitations  and  the  vices  of  its  past.  It  is  doubtful  if  it  ever 
does  this  without  the  aid  of  those  collective  forces  which  we 
describe  when  we  use  the  word  civilization.  Religion  is  undoubt- 
edly the  most  conservative  social  force  known  to  the  life  of  , 
mankind,  and  it  is  always  extremely  reluctant  to  break  with  its 
own  history. 

Such  being  the  tendency  of  religion,  we  may  rightly  accept 
an  attitude  of  caution  in  regard  to  its  dogmatisms.  We  may 
hesitate  in  regard  to  every  dogma  which  is  declared  to  be  of 
undoubted  veracity.  The  very  claim  of  revelation,  constantly 
made  in  the  name  of  religion,  is  fundamentally  of  a  dogmatic 
nature,  intended  to  impose  silence  on  all  who  would  think  freely 
and  constructively.  Religion  is  a  growth,  now  in  process  of 
development  as  in  the  past;  and,  if  it  is  to  be  regarded  in  any_ 
sense  or  degree  as  a  revelation,  it  must  be  assumed  to  be  a 
progressive,  a  constantly  unfolding  revelation,  a  continuous 
process  of  advance  from  lower  to  higher  forms  of  expression. 

He  who  would  study  religion  in  an  untrammelled  spirit, 

jod 


INTRODUCTION 

without  fear  and  without  prejudice,  must  do  so  without  the 
slightest  thought  that  the  conclusions  he  reaches  can  determine 
his  own  future  destiny.  It  cannot  be  assumed  that  any  belief 
decides  what  is  to  be  the  nature  of  the  life  which  will  be  that 
of  the  individual  when  he  passes  from  his  present  state  of 
existence.  Belief  in  regard  to  subtle  theological  and  metaphys- 
ical problems  is  not  vital,  does  not  forecast  the  issues  of  life, 
and  can  be  in  no  sense  fateful  with  regard  to  the  determinations 
of  the  future.  He  who  hesitates  to  think  with  absolute  freedom 
on  this  account  cannot  have  any  opinions  in  regard  to  religion 
which  will  be  of  fundamental  importance. 

/  What  this  means  is,  that  religion  must  be  studied  in  the 
^scientific  spirit,  and  with  the  latest  and  most  approved  scientific 
methods.  First  of  all  we  are  to  seek  for  the  facts,  what  religion 
has  been  and  is;  and  as  if  we  had  before  us  a  plant  or  a  star 
for  investigation.  That  is,  any  concern  as  to  what  it  may  mean 
for  us  personally  must  be  absolutely  barred  out.  When  we 
investigate  a  plant  or  a  star  what  we  are  concerned  with  is  its 
origin,  its  nature,  the  process  of  its  development  or  its  relations 
to  other  plants  and  stars.  This,  too,  should  be  our  attitude  in 
the  study  of  religions.  In  a  word,  we  must  apply  to  them  the 
scientific  method  and  purpose,  that  of  knowing  their  origin, 
the  processes  of  their  growth,  and  what  they  meant  to  those  who- 
accepted  them.  This  method  in  the  study  of  religions  has  de- 
veloped the  newest  science,  that  of  Comparative  Religion,  or 
the  study  of  all  the  religions  of  the  world  in  relation  to  each 
other,  with  a  view  to  determining  their  common  factors,  that 
in  which  they  differ,  and  the  stages  through  which  each  has 
grown  from  its  early  beginnings  to  its  latest  manifestations 
of  itself. 

Such  a  study  may  not  promote  piety  or  worship  or  a  dog- 
matic belief  of  any  kind;  but  it  does  show  us  what  purpose 

xxii 


INTRODUCTION 

religion  has  answered  to  in  the  evolution  of  mankind.  We  shall 
come  upon  much  that  is  crude,  vulgar,  immoral  or  unmoral, 
wanting  in  all  mental  inspiration;  but  also  upon  much  that  is 
illuminating  as  to  the  nature  of  man,  the  manner  in  which  cul- 
ture and  civilization  have  been  produced.  We  will  also  find  many 
a  suggestion  as  to  the  future  of  religion,  and  the  manner  in 
which  it  can  be  purified  of  its  crude  survivals,  and  made  a  vital 
force  in  the  future  evolution  of  mankind. 

It  is  the  purpose  of  the  following  pages  to  set  forth  the 
human  origin  of  religion,  and  especially  those  phases  of  it 
which  reflect  and  interpret  the  needs  and  the  aspirations  of 
mankind.  Whether  religion  comes  to  man  through  instinct, 
intuition,  philosophical  insight,  revelation  or  some  form  of 
supernatural  intervention,  it  must  be  ultimately  brought  within 
the  compass  of  the  human  understanding  and  fitted  to  the  needs 
of  hoping  and  sorrowing  men  and  women.  It  must  be  reduced 
to  practice,  fitted  to  daily  utilities,  and  made  to  conform  to 
individual  and  social  demands.  The  more  truly  it  is  socialized, 
that  is,  brought  to  act  as  a  motive  cementing  together  groups  of 
smaller  or  greater  size,  the  more  truly  is  it  worthy  of  general 
acceptance.  In  a  word,  religion  finds  its  real  sanctions  in  its 
social  values,  in  its  capacity  for  binding  men  together  in  unify- 
ing relations. 

Religion  cannot  be  understood  apart  from  man  and  his 
needs.  JSince  man  has  created  all  religions,  and  still  retains  in 
full  measure  that  creative  capacity,  religion  must  be  studied 
in  the  light  of  man's  unfolding  culture  and  civilization.  The 
old  thinker  who  said  that  man  is  the  measure  of  all  things  said 
better  than  he  knew,  and  far  better  than  the  succeeding  ages 
have  recognized.  When  it  was  said  that  man  was  not  made  in 
order  that  he  might  keep  a  day  of  rest,  but  the  day  of  rest 
came  into  existence  for  the  profit  of  man,  its  purport  might  be 

xxiii 


INTRODUCTION 

extended  to  signify  that  religion  has  its  real  meanings  in  the 
values  it  confers  upon  humanity.  Man  does  not  exist  for 
the  sake  of  being  religious,  but  religion  has  come  into  existence 
because  it  confers  a  human  benefit.  That  benefit  alone  gives 
it  meaning  and  value.  Religion  has  not  been  imposed  upon 
man  from  some  extraneous  source  or  thrust  down  upon  him  from 
above.  He  is  the  meaning  of  it,  the  worth  of  it,  and  the  source 
of  its  inspirations  and  its  higher  values.  Above  all  religions 
and  all  gods  is  humanity,  the  creator  and  the  sustainer  of 
them  all. 


XX1T 


CHAPTER  I 

The  Social  Transmission  of 
Human  Experiences 

RELIGION  is  of  social  origin,  and,  in  its  beginnings,  is  an 
emotional  expression4  of  the  relations  of  a  group  to  its 
environing  world.  Fundamentally  and  essentially,  it  is  a  mani- 
festation of  the  collective  life  of  a  band  of  men  and  women 
living  together  in  social  relations,  in  order  that  they  may  best 
meet  the  demands  for  food,  the  perpetuation  of  their  own  exis- 
tence as  a  collectivity  through  the  birth  of  children,  the  pro- 
tection of  the  group  from  enemies  of  whatever  kind,  and  that 
they  may  satisfy  the  claims  of  the  collective  life  emotionally, 
ethically,  and  esthetically. 

In  the  study  of  the  history  of  religion  it  is  of  the  first  im- 
portance to  recognize  that  it  is  socially,  and  not  biologically, 
transmitted  from  generation  to  generation.  We  do  not  inherit 
religion  from  our  ancestors  by  the  process  of  physical  or  con- 
genital heredity;  but  by  the  methods  of  training,  education, 
culture,  and  social  influence.  We  do  inherit  a  greater  or  lesser 
predisposition  in  favor  of  religious  experiences,  so  that  we  are 
more  or  less  attracted  to  them  when  they  come  to  us  in  the 
process  of  social  transmission.  We  may  have  a  religious 
diathesis,  to  use  a  medical  term,  or,  in  popular  phraseology,  we 
may  have  a  religious  constitution.  Some  persons  appear  not  to 
be  born  with  such  a  constitution,  and  are  to  a  degree  indifferent 
to  the  emotional  and  the  social  appeal  of  religion.  Probably  no 


THE         3IAL  ETj  ION  OF  RELIGION 


.          .      < 
one  can  be  wholly  'mtiiffe&'tot  tft*ti}0  questions  suggested  by  the 

phenomena  of  birth  and  death,  by  pain  and  disease,  and  by  our 
relations  to  the  universe  of  which  we  form  a  part. 

Undoubtedly,  however,  there  is  a  wide  range  in  the  ability 
to  appreciate  the  appeals  of  religion  ;  and  if  some  are  seemingly 
indifferent  to  these  appeals,  others  are  supersensitive  to  them. 
Granted  this  natural  or  inherited  attitude  towards  religious  ex- 
periences, the  fact  remains  that  the  kind  of  religion  accepted 
depends  almost  wholly  on  the  process  of  social  transmission, 
that  is,  on  the  religious  environment  of  the  individual,  and  on 
the  training  which  he  receives  in  this  respect. 

Religion  is  not  peculiar  because  of  the  fact  that  it  is  socially 
transmitted.  In  this  regard  it  shares  with  language,  culture, 
civilization,  and  all  that  makes  up  the  intellectual  content  of 
the  mind,  for  all  of  these  are  socially,  not  congenitally,  inherited. 
We  do  not  biologically  inherit  anything  more  than  a  congenital 
capacity  for  industries,  arts,  sciences,  literatures  or  spiritual 
experiences.  It  is  doubtful  if  we  inherit  anything  more  than  a 
predisposition  to  the  kind  of  social  conduct  which  we  name 
morality. 

In  order  to  comprehend  fully  the  fact  that  religion  is 
socially  and  not  congenitally  transmitted,  it  is  important  to 
recognize  that  we  do  not  inherit  a  language,  but  only  the  capac- 
ity for  speech.  We  acquire  language  by  a  slow  process  of 
learning,  and  by  imitation  of  those  with  whom  we  are  socially 
connected  during  the  period  of  childhood.  Many  persons  never 
acquire  the  ability  to  speak  correctly  and  intelligently  the 
language  of  their  parents  and  of  their  social  group,  partly 
because  they  do  not  inherit  more  than  a  limited  capacity  in  this 
direction,  but  more  especially  because  their  social  environment 
in  childhood  does  not  afford  them  a  standard  which  they  can 
follow  to  a  full  measure  of  language  attainment.  Other  per- 

[2] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF   RELIGION 

sons  may  inherit  a  great  capacity  for  the  acquisition  of  lan- 
guages; but  even  for  them  some  effort,  some  patient  endeavor, 
is  necessary  to  the  securing  of  a  new  language  equipment.  This 
is  to  be  recognized,  that  all  languages  are  acquired,  and  none 
are  born  with  us. 

It  may  seem  the  merest  truism,  that  we  acquire  a  language, 
and  are  not  born  with  it;  and  yet  this  fact  is  not  always  fully 
recognized  as  to  its  social  bearings.  It  means  not  merely  that 
language  is  the  result  of  social  transmission;  but  that  religion, 
culture,  morality  and  science  are  of  the  same  nature,  not  born 
with  us,  but  must  be  acquired.  The  mind  in  infancy  has  been 
described  sometimes  as  a  blank  sheet  of  paper,  with  its  water- 
marks, and  with  its  capacity  for  receiving  whatever  we  may 
wish  to  write  upon  it.  In  the  instance  of  the  human  mind, 
however,  the  writing  is  produced  socially,  by  the  environing 
conditions  of  our  childhood  and  youth. 

Many  years  ago  Stanley  Hall  made  a  sociological  and  psy- 
chological study  of  the  children  first  entering  the  public  schools 
of  the  city  of  Boston.  The  most  patent  fact  resulting  from  that 
study  was,  that  the  amount  of  knowledge  children  of  six  years 
of  age  had  acquired  depended  wholly  upon  their  social  environ- 
ment during  the  preceding  years.  Those  who  had  been  born 
with  a  good  heredity  naturally  had  acquired  more  than  those 
born  with  dull  minds  or  defective  brains.  Nevertheless,  the 
social  environment  had  determined  what  Hall  called  "the  con- 
tents of  the  minds"  of  these  children.  If  the  parents  were 
educated  the  children  had  profited  by  that  fact,  but  if  they 
were  ignorant,  and  without  intellectual  interests,  the  children 
had  suffered  from  that  limitation  of  the  parents.  If  the  chil- 
dren had  been  confined  throughout  their  lives  to  the  city  streets, 
that  fact  appeared  as  to  what  they  knew.  In  case  they  had 
never  been  into  the  country  the  sights  and  sounds  there  to  be 

[3] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  EELIGION 

met  with  formed  no  part  of  the  contents  of  their  minds.  If 
the  parents  had  traveled  or  if  they  had  spent  the  summers  in 
the  country  the  breadth  of  the  mental  equipment  of  the  chil- 
dren's minds  was  correspondingly  enlarged.  In  a  word,  chil- 
dren entering  upon  the  studies  of  the  public  schools  have  had 
their  minds  developed  in  harmony  with  their  social  environ- 
ment up  to  that  period. 

Had  Hall  studied  the  religious  contents  of  the  children's 
minds  who  came  under  his  enquiries,  the  same  conclusions,  essen- 
tially, would  have  been  reached.  He  would  have  found  that 
some  of  these  children  were  endowed  with  more  of  religious 
sensitiveness  than  others,  but  that  none  of  them  had  an  innate 
or  intuitive  capacity  to  determine  what  they  knew  or  appre- 
ciated in  regard  to  religion.  All  that  had  been  determined  by 
their  social  surroundings,  by  the  influence  of  their  parents,  and 
by  imitation  of  them,  by  contact  with  other  persons  in  the 
nursery  or  on  the  street,  by  their  experiences  in  Sunday-school 
or  church,  and  by  the  whole  range  of  their  social  contacts,  in 
so  far  as  tjiese  had  been  of  a  religious  nature. 


In  order  that  we  may  fully  grasp  the  reasons  why  the  con- 
tents of  the  mind  are  socially  determined,  it  is  necessary  to 
study  the  ultimate  consequences  of  the  congenital  and  social 
transmission  of  the  products  of  human  experience.  These  two 
processes  are  essentially  different,  though  they  have  been  often 
regarded  as  of  the  same  nature,  and  as  giving  the  same  results. 
Congenital  transmission  is  a  biological  process,  and  is  largely  of 
a  physical  nature.  Social  transmission  is  a  sociological  and 
psychological  process,  and  may  be  described  as  that  which  under- 
lies all  education,  culture,  and  civilization. 

[4] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

At  the  basis  of  this  divergence  of  the  two  processes  of  con- 
genital and  social  inheritance  or  transmission  is  the  law  that 
acquired  characters  are  not  inherited.  That  is,  the  child  re- 
ceives in  the  process  of  physical,  congenital,  germinal,  organic 
or  biological  heredity  (all  these  words  having  essentially  the 
same  meaning),  what  is  passed  on  to  him  from  his  ancestors, 
through  his  parents.  This  includes  his  physical  organism  and 
its  strength  or  weakness,  its  predisposition  to  disease  of  one  kind 
or  another,  or  its  capacity  for  long  life  and  permanent  good 
health.  Whether  the  individual  is  small  or  large,  short  or  tall, 
blonde  or  brunette,  has  one  color  of  eyes  or  another,  and  other 
physical  qualities  and  capacities,  will  be  determined  by  physical 
inheritance.  In  the  same  way  temperament  is  inherited,  as  well 
as  what  we  call  "  disposition, "  a  nervous  diathesis  or  a  rugged 
constitution. 

Mental  qualities  and  capacities  are  inherited  by  the  same 
process.  Congenital  heredity  gives  an  alert  or  a  dull  mind, 
one  predisposed  to  an  orderly,  sane  and  moral  life,  or  one  that 
is  predisposed  to  vice  and  crime.  The  students  of  heredity  and 
eugenics  have  made  much  of  this  tendency  to  the  congenital 
transmission  of  good  or  bad  qualities.  They  insist  that  heredity 
of  this  kind  determines  the  individual  life,  that  a  good  parent- 
age or  ancestry  is  fundamental  to  a  good  or  a  noble  and  wise 
life,  that  no  training  or  education  can  overcome  the  limitations 
and  drawbacks  of  a  bad  heredity,  and  that  what  we  are  to  care 
for  most  is  that  the  coming  generation  shall  be  well-born. 

"We  cannot  question  the  fact  that  mental  predisposition  and 
capacity  are  determined  by  physical  heredity.  A  long  line  of 
capable  ancestry  gives  large  assurance  that  the  coming  genera- 
tion  will  be  highly  endowed.  Genius  runs  in  families,  and  the 
great  men  and  women  of  the  world  have  often  been  closely 
linked  to  each  other  by  ancestral  ties.  The  capacities  of  the 

[5] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

individual,  and  his  predisposition  to  one  form  or  another  of 
mental  activity,  that  is,  as  to  whether  he  shall  be  manual  laborer, 
artisan,  artist,  philosopher,  scientist  or  saint  is  result,  in  large 
measure,  of  his  ancestry. 

The  eugenists  have  collected  a  large  number  of  instances 
of  the  inheritance  of  genius  and  talent,  and  of  those  who  have 
been  cursed  with  a  heredity  of  mental  and  physical  defect. 
In  this  country  reference  is  often  made  to  the  family  of  the 
Jukes,  the  descendants  of  a  defective  woman  living  in  New 
York  during  the  eighteenth  century.  In  the  line  of  her  de- 
scendants were  a  large  number  of  mental  defectives,  criminals, 
prostitutes,  and  other  persons  who  were  a  burden  upon  so- 
ciety. This  family  has  been  compared  with  the  Edwards  fam- 
ily, and  its  long  line  of  descendants  of  the  highest  intellectual,  so- 
cial and  moral  endowment.  Recently  there  has  been  studied 
a  New  Jersey  family  in  which  there  appeared  the  same  marked 
hereditary  divergences.  A  young  man  at  the  time  of  the 
revolution  became  the  father  of  an  illegitimate  child  by  a  de- 
fective girl;  and  a  long  line  of  vicious,  criminal  and  defective 
persons  has  resulted,  only  a  small  proportion  of  the  descend- 
ants of  this  girl  having  been  able  to  escape  the  results  of  the 
bad  heredity.  This  young  man  later  married  a  virtuous, 
educated  and  refined  woman,  by  whom  he  became  the  ancestor 
of  a  long  line  of  the  leading  men  and  women  of  his  state,  in- 
cluding many  who  have  held  the  highest  positions,  and  with 
only  a  small  number  of  her  descendants  showing  vicious  or 
defective  tendencies. 

Such  evidence  seems  to  make  it  overwhelmingly  true,  as 
Francis  Galton  wrote,  that  nature  is  far  more  important  than 
nurture  in  determining  capacity  and  character.  The  eugenists 
have  therefore  proposed  and  urged,  with  all  possible  emphasis, 
that  the  utmost  attention  should  be  given  to  the  mating  of 

[6] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF   RELIGION 

capable  persons,  with  a  view  to  the  producing  a  generation  of 
sound  and  efficient  men  and  women.  They  have  gone  even  so 
far  as  to  propose  the  elimination  of  those  not  capable  of  pro- 
ducing a  sound  offspring,  either  by  the  process  of  death  or  that 
of  desexualization. 

We  may  now  turn  to  the  process  of  social  heredity  or  the 
transmission  of  the  results  of  culture.  We  have  already  em- 
phasized the  importance  of  this  form  of  inheritance  in  saying 
that  language,  culture,  civilization,  religion  and  morality  are 
transmitted  from  generation  to  generation  by  a  social  process, 
and  not  by  means  of  congenital  heredity.  An  illustration  may 
suggest  the  relations  of  the  two,  as  well  as  the  radical  di- 
vergence in  the  nature  of  the  two  processes.  Organic  or  con- 
genital heredity  produces  the  house  in  which  we  live,  and  all 
that  makes  it  a  fit  place  for  human  habitation.  Its  exposure, 
its  geographical  and  human  environment,  its  arrangement  of 
rooms,  its  "modern  improvements, "  its  artistic  decorations, 
assure  its  attractiveness,  and  make  it  a  delightful  place  of 
abode.  Here  we  have  the  body,  with  its  mental  capabilities, 
as  endowed  with  brain  and  nervous  organism.  The  house,  in 
its  interior  furnishings,  and  in  its  human  inhabitants,  of  what- 
ever nature  and  capacities,  may  be  compared  to  the  endow- 
ments provided  by  social  heredity.  It  is  difficult  to  separate 
the  house  from  its  inhabitants,  and  what  they  bring  into  it 
that  expresses  their  natures  and  their  capabilities.  Whether 
it  shall  express  an  artistic,  musical,  intellectual  or  social  pref- 
erence in  the  family  will  be  determined  by  the  equipments 
with  which  they  provide  it,  and  how  they  live  as  its  occupants. 
It  is  evident  that  the  same  house  may  at  different  times  have 
as  its  occupiers  families  of  widely  divergent  tastes  and  prefer- 
ences. But  the  house  itself  may  represent  biological  heredity; 

[7] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  EELIGION 

its  occupants  and  their  tastes  the  conditions  afforded  by  so- 
cial heredity. 

It  was  suggested  many  years  ago  by  Weismann,  in  an  es- 
say on  the  musical  sense  in  animals  and  man,  that  the  increased 
expression  of  musical  ability  in  modern  times  did  not  imply 
that  musical  talent  had  been  developed  in  equal  proportion. 
It  is  not  probable  that  such  talent  has  increased  for  a  long 
period,  but  that  there  has  been  a  gradual  evolution  of  the 
means  of  musical  expression.  The  science  and  the  art  of  music 
have  been  slowly  perfected;  and  it  is  this  development  of  the 
art  through  many  generations  which  has  enabled  musicians  to 
make  of  it  a  greater  artistic  power  than  it  could  have  been  in 
ages  before  it  had  reached  the  perfection  it  has  attained  in 
modern  times.  What  we  find,  therefore,  is  not  an  increase  in 
musical  genius  by  means  of  hereditary  transmission ;  but  a  per- 
fection of  the  art  with  the  aid  of  better  instruments  and  a  more 
fully  equipped  science  of  musical  expression.  Until  the  scale 
had  been  perfected,  until  there  had  been  developed  the  laws 
of  melody,  harmony,  orchestration,  etc.,  it  was  impossible  that 
any  large  degree  of  perfection  could  be  reached  even  by  men 
of  the  highest  musical  talent. 

Weismann  was  evidently  correct  in  insisting  that  the  de- 
velopment of  any  mental  faculty  is  not  necessarily  connected 
with  an  elevation  of  mental  capacity  in  the  individual.  The 
capacity  of  the  brain  need  not  be  changed  or  enlarged  in  order 
that  there  may  be  an  increase  in  mental  output.  We  can  solve 
mathematical  and  mechanical  problems  far  more  successfully 
than  was  possible  in  the  days  of  Aristotle,  though  the  men  who 
undertake  these  tasks  are  far  less  mentally  competent  than  was 
he.  Though  there  has  been  no  increase  in  musical  faculty  since 
the  time  of  .the  ancient  Greeks,  there  has  undoubtedly  been  a 
great  development  in  the  art  and  the  science  of  music.  Accord- 

[8] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

ingly,  Weismann  rightly  suggests  that  there  is  to  be  recognized  a 
complete  distinction  between  music  and  musical  talent,  the 
one  depending  on  the  gradual  advance  in  the  art  of  music 
and  the  other  on  the  hereditary  equipment  of  the  individual. 
For  this  reason  Weismann  concludes  that  the  evolution  of  music 
does  not  depend  upon  any  increase  in  the  musical  faculty  or 
any  alteration  in  the  inherent  physical  nature  of  man,  but 
solely  upon  the  social  power  of  transmitting  the  intellectual 
achievements  of  each  generation  to  those  which  follow.  This 
transmission  of  the  results  of  human  achievement  from  genera- 
tion to  generation  by  a  social  process  will  apply  to  religion  as 
well  as  to  music;  and  it  will  equally  apply  to  language,  art, 
science,  morals,  and  all  forms  of  developed  human  expression. 

II 

This  capacity  in  man  for  the  transmission  of  the  results 
of  social  experience  from  generation  to  generation  very  dis- 
tinctly separates  him  from  the  animals.  It  is  true  that  some 
of  the  higher  animals  have  this  capacity  in  an  embryonic  form 
and  extent;  but  in  the  absence  of  language,  the  animals  have 
no  adequate  instrument  for  the  transmission  of  the  results  of 
animal  experience.  All  that  the  animals  can  accomplish  in 
this  direction  is  for  each  parent,  and  especially  the  mother,  to 
train  her  young  as  best  she  can  in  those  methods  for  securing 
food  or  warding  off  enemies,  which  she  has  found  most  suc- 
cessful. It  may  be  that  she  has  received  these  habits  and 
customs  from  her  parents,  and  now  transmits  them  to  her  off- 
spring. Lacking  an  adequate  language,  and  therefore  being 
unable  to  construct  traditions,  myths,  elaborated  customs  and 
forms  of  social  organization,  the  animals  reach  forward  only 
a  very  little  way  in  the  direction  of  social  heredity  and  social 
institutions. 

[9] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF   RELIGION 

The  lower  animals  are  guided  wholly  by  instinct,  every 
phase  of  their  lives  being  determined  by  congenital  heredity. 
In  the  higher  species  the  brain  and  the  nervous  system  have 
become  more  complicated,  with  the  result  that  the  young  are 
born  in  a  degree  imperfect,  and  need  some  weeks  or  months 
or  even  years  in  which  to  reach  the  full  adult  stage.  During 
this  period  of  immaturity  the  young  must  be  cared  for  by  the 
parents,  and  especially  by  the  mother.  It  is  at  this  time  that 
the  young,  being  no  longer  under  the  complete  domination  of 
instinct,  can  be  taught  something  of  what  the  parents  have 
learned,  either  by  individual  experience  or  as  the  result  of 
animal  tradition,  that  is,  what  they  have  been  taught  by  their 
own  parents  in  the  period  of  youth. 

In  his  Cosmic  Philosophy,  published  in  1875,  John  Fiske 
was  the  first  person  to  point  out  the  great  importance  of  the 
prolongation  of  infancy  in  man  as  a  means  of  moral  and  social 
evolution.  He  showed  that  in  the  animals  the  instincts  were 
fully  organized  at  birth,  while  in  man  the  organization  of  the 
instincts,  primary  and  secondary,  are  continued  through  the 
early  years  of  life.  In  this  manner  there  arises  the  phenomena 
of  infancy,  in  which  period  the  nerve-connections  and  correlative 
associations  necessary  for  self-maintenance  become  permanently 
established.  The  growing  complexity  of  intelligence  demands 
this  prolonged  period  for  its  growth  and  maturing,  with  the 
result  that  infancy  becomes  a  most  important  psychological  fac- 
tor in  the  evolution  of  man.  Even  to  a  larger  degree  it  estab- 
lishes man's  sociological  development,  and  the  growth  of  human 
society.  "The  prolonged  helplessness  of  the  offspring  must 
keep  the  parents  together  for  longer  periods  in  successive  epochs ; 
and  when  at  last  the  association  is  so  long  kept  up  that  the  older 
children  are  growing  mature  while  the  younger  ones  still  need 
protection,  the  family  relations  begin  to  become  permanent .... 

[10] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF   RELIGION 

Enduring  from  birth  until  death,  these  relationships  acquire  a 
traditionary  value  which  passes  on  from  generation  to  genera- 
tion, and  thus  there  arise  reciprocal  necessities  of  behavior  be- 
tween parents  and  children,  husbands  and  wives,  brothers  and 
sisters,  in  which  reciprocal  necessities  of  behavior  we  have  dis- 
cerned the  requisite  conditions  for  the  genesis  of  those  ego-altru- 
istic impulses  which,  when  further  modified  by  the  expansion  of 
the  sympathetic  feelings,  give  birth  to  moral  sentiments.'* 

In  several  essays  of  a  later  date  Fiske  elaborated  this  con- 
ception in  regard  to  the  social  functions  of  infancy,  and  the  im- 
maturity of  the  growing  child  and  youth.  Such  immaturity 
gives  opportunity  for  the  social  education  of  the  individual,  for 
the  play  of  suggestion,  and  for  the  whole  of  the  process  of  train- 
ing and  the  passing  on  to  him  of  some,  at  least,  of  the  results  of 
human  experience  accumulated  through  the  ages.  This  process 
has  been  defined  as  social  heredity,  in  contradistinction  to  con- 
genital heredity.  When  it  is  desirable  to  emphasize  the  process 
of  this  transmission  of  the  products  of  social  heredity  from  gen- 
eration to  generation  it  is  sometimes  called  tradition,  which  has 
been  defined  as  "the  handing  down  of  knowledge,  behavior, 
modes  of  life,  etc.,  from  generation  to  generation  without  phys- 
ical heredity ;  applied  also  to  that  which  is  handed  down. ' ' 

We  do  not  know  precisely  how  it  came  about  that  man  be- 
gins life  in  a  condition  of  weakness,  helplessness,  and  immaturity 
far  greater  than  in  the  case  of  the  most  highly  developed  of  the 
animals.  We  do  know,  however,  that  this  immaturity  of  the 
child  at  birth  has  had  the  greatest  consequences  for  the  indi- 
vidual and  for  the  race.  At  birth  the  child  is  utterly  helpless, 
wholly  dependent  upon  others,  is  not  able  to  hear  or  see  dis- 
tinctly, can  use  none  of  its  limbs  to  any  purpose,  knows  nothing 
but  that  it  is  hungry  and  that  it  may  be  uncomfortable.  A  bun- 
dle of  possibilities  only,  it  must  live,  if  it  lives  at  all,  dependent 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

for  months  and  years  upon  the  care  of  its  mother,  father,  nurse, 
and  the  environing  society  of  which  it  becomes  a  part. 

The  brain  of  this  child  is  immature,  in  some  considerable 
degree  unorganized;  and  its  nervous  system  is  far  from  being 
fully  developed.  Without  the  aid  of  other  persons  it  will  grow 
up  to  become  little  more  than  an  animal ;  and  it  is  not  too  much 
to  say  that  it  is  wholly  dependent  upon  society  as  to  what  it  may 
become  during  the  years  of  its  maturing,  which  may  be  twenty 
and  may  be  thirty-five,  before  it  attains  to  the  fullness  of  its 
powers.  During  all  this  period  the  individual  is  profiting  in 
many  ways  by  the  results  of  human  experience  through  the  ages, 
as  passed  on  to  it  in  the  form  of  training,  education,  contact 
with  individuals  and  society,  and  by  all  the  processes  by  means 
of  which  the  contents  of  the  mind  are  being  secured.  It  is  not 
the  intellect  alone,  however,  that  is  trained  and  matured  by 
human  contacts ;  but  the  emotions  and  feelings  are  being  organ- 
ized, the  conscience  guided,  and  the  whole  of  the  personal  exist- 
ence brought  into  what  it  ultimately  becomes.  Nor  are  we  to 
assume  that  it  is  alone  by  human  contacts  that  the  individual  is 
attaining  his  maturity,  for  he  may  be  largely  influenced  by 
nature  and  by  association  with  animals. 

The  prolonged  period  of  human  immaturity  after  birth 
has  the  effect  of  making  the  nervous  system,  the  brain,  and  the 
mind  highly  plastic  and  receptive.  To  such  an  extent  is  this 
the  case  that  a  French  sociologist,  Gabriel  Tarde,  has  made 
imitation  the  basic  principle  of  both  psychology  and  sociology. 
The  infant  begins  its  education  by  imitating  those  about  it,  and 
in  this  manner  learns  how  to  use  its  limbs,  acquires  habits  which 
determine  its  conduct,  and  slowly  gains  ability  to  make  use  of 
speech  in  expressing  its  wants.  What  Tarde  claimed  for  imita- 
tion, however,  though  in  no  small  degree  resting  upon  a  sound 
basis  of  fact,  has  not  been  more  recently  accepted  as  the  f ounda- 

[12] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

tion  of  all  individual  and  social  life,  as  he  taught  in  his  numer- 
ous works.  Without  doubt,  however,  the  capacity  of  learning 
by  imitation,  and  especially  of  acquiring  what  society  has  to 
communicate  in  the  form  of  training,  education,  and  culture,  is 
the  process  by  which  the  immature  child  and  youth  come  to  the 
maturity  of  their  powers. 

Recent  psychologists  are  more  inclined  to  emphasize  sug- 
gestion than  to  give  such  credit  to  imitation  as  was  done  by 
Tarde.  The  conception  of  suggestion,  according  to  James  Mark 
Baldwin,  in  his  Mental  Development  in  the  Child  and  the  Race, 
affords  "an  extraordinary  point  of  vantage  for  estimating  the 
development  view  of  the  origin  of  the  social  and  personal  sense. 
We  have  in  it  direct  evidence  of  the  growth  of  the  social  instinct 
by  accretions  from  experiences  of  social  conditions,  and  direct 
evidence,  further,  of  the  lines  of  progress  which  these  experiences 
and  variations  have  marked  out." 

Suggestion  comes  from  many  sources  and  takes  many  forms. 
The  whole  process  of  the  contact  of  the  child  and  youth,  and 
even  in  no  inconsiderable  degree  also  the  adult,  with  society  is 
one  giving  him  suggestions,  hinting  to  him  of  the  manner  of 
his  right  thinking,  his  correct  way  of  feeling  and  acting,  the 
conduct  which  ought  to  be  his,  and  the  nature  of  his  religious 
attitudes.  Included  in  suggestion  is  imitation,  direct  teaching, 
and  all  manner  of  emotional  responses.  In  its  most  em- 
phatic expression  suggestion  takes  the  form  of  a  hypnotic  im- 
position of  the  will  of  society,  or  of  some  powerful  individual, 
who  speaks  for  the  social  body;  and  the  youth  finds  himself 
compelled  to  obey.  What  thus  results  is  not  the  mere  imitation 
of  one  person  by  another,  but  the  overpowering  mastery  of  the 
individual  by  a  social  force  he  cannot  resist. 

Keeping  in  mind  the  fact  that  the  lower  animals  have  their 
lives  completely  determined  by  congenital  heredity  in  the  form 

[13] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

of  instinct;  and  keeping  in  mind  the  other  fact  that  instinct 
has  only  a  comparatively  limited  control  over  the  human  indi- 
vidual, and  that  he  has  open  to  him  the  accumulated  results  of 
human  experience  as  these  have  been  elaborated  through  the 
ages,  we  see  not  only  the  wide  limit  there  is  between  congenital 
heredity  and  social  heredity,  but  also  the  vaster  degree  of  di- 
vergence there  is  between  the  animal  and  the  man.  It  is  to  be 
borne  in  mind  that  man  is  an  animal,  that  he  is  of  animal  origin, 
that  he  continues  to  inherit  congenitally  much  that  belongs  to 
the  animal  nature;  but  in  many  respects  he  has  left  far  behind 
his  animal  instincts  and  desires.  He  has  somehow,  in  the  course 
of  the  ages,  acquired  that  marvellous  instrument  for  the  develop- 
ment of  social  heredity,  language.  With  its  aid  he  has  also  or- 
ganized social  and  political  institutions,  developed  arts  and 
sciences,  and  attained  to  morality  and  religion. 

In  order  to  make  certain  that  we  clearly  comprehend  the 
difference  in  nature  between  congenital  and  social  heredity, 
we  may  turn  again  to  compare  them  with  each  other.  There 
resulted  from  Darwin's  publication  of  his  Origin  of  Species 
and  Descent  of  Man,  and  the  studies  to  which  these  works 
gave  rise,  the  placing  of  a  great  emphasis  upon  the  conditions 
and  laws  of  biology,  which  led  to  the  elaboration  of  the  princi- 
ples of  heredity  and  eugenics.  For  some  years  all  phases  of 
human  life  were  interpreted  from  this  broad  conception  of  the 
nature  and  significance  of  biology;  and  heredity  became  the 
fundamental  law  not  only  of  animal  existence,  but  also  of 
sociological  interpretation.  The  primary  idea  set  forth  from 
this  point  of  view  was  that  heredity  determines  the  life  of  the 
individual,  and  through  him  of  society  itself.  The  conclusion 
being  accepted,  as  it  was  accepted  by  Darwin  and  many  others, 
that  natural  selection  is  a  universal  law,  and  that  the  results 
produced  by  its  operation  are  transmitted  by  means  of  con- 

[14] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF   RELIGION 

genital  heredity,  it  was  assumed  that  all  progress  results  from 
the  passing  on  to  the  child  of  the  results  of  the  parents '  ex- 
periences, and  their  acquisitions  of  every  kind. 

In  large  degree  we  owe  it  to  Weismann,  as  already  indi- 
cated, that  this  biological  conception  of  human  nature  and 
progress  has  been  modified.  His  conclusion  that  the  results  of 
individual  experience  and  learning  are  not  inherited  congeni- 
tally,  or,  as  it  has  been  termed,  that  acquired  characters  are 
not  inherited,  has  been  gradually  developed  by  a  succession  of 
investigators,  into  its  modification  by  the  law  of  social  heredity 
or  the  social  transmission  of  the  results  of  human  experience. 
This  means,  in  simple  statement,  that  what  the  teacher  obtains 
of  facility  in  the  acquisition  of  knowledge  or  the  blacksmith  of 
muscular  development  in  the  pursuit  of  his  craft  are  not  passed 
on  congenitally  to  their  children.  The  teacher  may  train  his 
children  to  the  acquisition  of  what  he  knows,  and  the  black- 
smith may  train  his  children  to  the  mastery  of  his  craft;  but 
neither  gives  them  anything  congenitally  in  the  way  of  larger 
brain  development  or  greater  muscular  power.  Weismann 
showed  us  that  the  only  manner  in  which  individual  acquisi- 
tions can  be  transmitted  to  offspring  is  by  means  of  a  change 
in  the  germ-plasm,  that  is,  through  the  modification  of  the 
germ  from  which  the  individual  begins  his  life.  Such  modifi- 
cation of  the  germinal  factors  takes  place  only  rarely  or 
through  some  process  that  acts  continuously  for  a  considerable 
period,  and  appertains  to  a  large  number  of  individuals  through 
many  generations.  Something  of  this  kind  has  been  made 
certain  as  the  result  of  the  studies  in  biology  and  heredity  be- 
gun by  de  Vries  and  Mendel. 

Whatever  modifications  may  have  been  made  in  the  the- 
ories of  Weismann,  it  is  now  quite  certain  that  individual 
acquisitions  are  not  fully  transmitted  to  offspring,  and  that 

[15] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  EELIGION 

human  progress  is  not  exclusively  the  result  of  the  passing  on  to 
children  of  the  gains  made  by  the  parents  by  means  of  the 
congenital  process  of  heredity.  Very  slowly  this  conclusion 
has  been  reached  during  the  last  half-century;  and  the  em- 
phasis now  placed  upon  social  heredity  has  given  an  essen- 
tially new  conception  of  human  nature  and  the  processes  which 
have  given  us  what  we  call  civilization. 

A  remarkable  instance  of  the  dawnings  of  the  new  con- 
ceptions of  the  nature  of  the  social  process  may  be  seen  in  the 
experiences  of  Thomas  H.  Huxley.  In  his  Romanes  lecture  at 
Oxford,  in  1893,  on  Evolution  and  Ethics,  Huxley  showed  him- 
self much  puzzled  as  to  the  results  of  congenital  heredity  and 
natural  selection  as  antagonizing  the  ethical  efforts  and  de- 
mands of  man.  The  cosmic  process  means  struggle  and  strife, 
while  the  moral  nature  of  man,  and  the  demands  of  human 
society,  call  for  good-will,  love  and  justice.  Plants  and  animals 
have  advanced  as  the  result  of  the  struggle  for  existence  and 
the  survival  of  the  fittest ;  but  social  progress  for  man  demands 
a  checking  of  this  cosmic  process,  and  the  substitution  of  an- 
other, what  may  be  called  the  ethical  process.  In  place  of  the 
ruthless  self-assertion  of  the  cosmic  process,  the  ethical  process 
in  man  demands  self-restraint,  regard  for  the  welfare  of  others, 
and  attention  to  the  needs  of  society.  "The  history  of  civiliza- 
tion, "  Huxley  proceeds  to  say,  "details  the  steps  by  which 
men  have  succeeded  in  building  up  an  artificial  world  within 
the  cosmos/'  This  world,  as  he  indicated,  is  that  of  culture 
and  civilization,  and  he  might  have  added,  that  of  morality 
and  religion. 

It  seems  probable  that  Huxley  was  much  puzzled  over  the 
disparity  between  what  he  called  the  cosmic  process  and  what 
he  might  have  called  the  human  process ;  and  it  is  certain  that 
many  of  his  friends  and  admirers  thought  that  he  had  forsaken 

[16] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OP  RELIGION 

the  conclusions  of  Darwinism  and  of  evolution,  and  had  re- 
treated to  the  old  conservative  conceptions  of  philosophy,  if 
not  of  theology.  However,  if  Huxley  had  lived  to  our  own  day 
he  would  have  found  this  puzzle  in  large  degree  solved  by  the 
laws  of  social  heredity,  and  the  recognition  of  the  processes  by 
which  the  whole  of  the  results  of  culture  and  civilization  are 
transmitted  from  age  to  age.  Huxley  saw  that  there  was  here 
a  great  problem  to  be  solved,  to  which  biology  and  heredity 
had  not  given  the  clue.  That  clue,  it  is  now  evident,  is  to  be 
found  in  the  law  of  social  heredity,  and  the  transmission  of 
acquired  characters  by  the  processes  of  imitation,  training, 
education,  and  social  contact.  This  process  is  not  one  merely 
of  the  passing  on  the  results  of  individual  experiences  by 
parents  and  teachers  to  the  young,  but  that  of  a  vast  and  com- 
plicated social  process  by  which  culture  and  civilization  have 
been  developed  through  the  ages,  and  are  socially  transmitted 
from  generation  to  generation.  Here  we  have  something  as 
intimate  and  as  insistent  as  the  biological  process  of  the  trans- 
mission of  the  results  of  congenital  heredity.  It  links  together 
even  more  intimately  the  generations  to  each  other,  and  it  in- 
sures to  the  coming  generations  that  they  shall  be  fitly  equipped 
with  the  best  which  humanity  has  acquired  through  all  the 
ages  of  its  struggles  and  endeavors. 

Ill 

When  we  consider  the  ultimate  results  of  the  two  forms  of 
heredity,  we  come  upon  a  conclusion  of  much  scientific  and 
philosophical  importance.  In  congenital  heredity  we  find  the 
basis  of  individuality,  and  in  social  heredity  the  foundations 
of  personality.  What  these  two  words  represent  has  never 
been  very  clearly  defined;  and  they  have  been  often,  in  philo- 

[17] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

sophical  statements,  as  in  popular  usage,  confounded  with  each 
other.  It  seems  to  be  plain  enough  now  that  the  individual 
connotes  everything  implied  by  congenital  heredity.  The  indi- 
vidual organism,  with  its  separate  physical  structure,  its  in- 
dependent nervous  system  and  brain,  constitutes  a  distinct 
physiological  entity,  with  its  own  separate  demands  and  de- 
sires. From  our  present  point  of  view  it  affords  the  matrix  or 
vehicle  for  the  hereditary  transmission  of  the  racial  qualities 
to  the  next  generation.  Though  that  fact  may  seem  to  connect 
it,  as  it  does,  most  intimately  with  the  racial  process,  yet  in 
order  to  do  this,  it  appears  to  be  necessary  that  the  individual 
shall  be  in  himself  a  complete  entity  of  the  physiological  or 
biological  type. 

We  may  therefore  define  individuality,  or  that  which  con- 
stitutes the  individual  human  being,  as  the  product  of  con- 
genital heredity.  Within  itself  it  contains  everything  trans- 
mitted from  its  ancestry  to  this  kind  of  entity.  The  hereditary 
process  demands  the  intimate  linking  together  of  the  genera- 
tions, and  the  dependence  of  the  individual,  not  merely  on  his 
parents,  but  on  a  far-back  ancestry,  which  ultimately  includes 
the  whole  of  the  population  of  the  earth.  Not  the  less,  how- 
ever, is  there  something  very  positive  in  the  individual  organ- 
ism, which  concerns  its  nature  as  a  distinct  physiological  entity. 
We  conclude,  therefore,  that  it  is  the  process  of  congenital 
heredity  which  elaborates  the  individual,  and  equips  him  with 
all  his  biological  qualities  and  capacities. 

Not  the  less  surely  does  the  process  of  social  heredity  en- 
dow this  individual  with  what  we  call  personality.  In  order 
to  accept  this  conclusion  we  may  need  to  put  aside  many  philo- 
sophical and  theological  presuppositions.  It  assumes  that  the 
person  as  such  is  the  product  of  a  great  and  universal  social 
process,  that  extends  in  its  workings  from  the  time  of  the  first 

[18] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  EELIGION 

human  beings  to  our  own  day.  The  word  person  originally 
means  a  mask,  the  assuming  of  a  character  on  the  stage,  a  char- 
acter other  than  that  of  one's  own  being.  The  social  process, 
the  transmission  traditionally  of  the  results  of  acquired  char- 
acters, is  the  masking  of  individuality  by  personality.  What 
the  individual  may  be,  as  the  result  of  congenital  heredity,  is 
added  to  in  the  social  process,  and  he  assumes  another  and 
more  elaborate  character.  When  society  has  adopted  this 
animal  individuality  into  its  confidences,  and  socialized  him  in 
the  whole  process  of  his  education  and  his  civilization,  he 
comes  forth  no  longer  a  physiological  unit,  but  a  member  of 
society  fit  to  live  the  mental  and  the  moral  life  —  the  life  of 
taste,  culture,  and  refinement. 

Individuality  is  that  which  separates  the  physiological 
entity  from  other  individuals,  and  gives  him  an  existence  of 
his  own.  Personality  is  that  which  unites  the  individual  to 
the  racial  life,  socializes  him,  makes  him  what  mankind  de- 
sires him  to  become  as  the  result  of  its  influences ;  and  fits  him 
to  become  a  part  of  the  racial  continuity.  Personality  is  there- 
fore a  social  product,  the  elaboration  upon  the  individual  of 
the  activities  of  the  social  process,  which  ultimate  in  some 
measure  in  the  creation  of  a  being  adapted  to  live  the  social 
and  the  moral  life.  What  we  are  saying  here  is  this :  that  the 
highest  type  of  existence  known  to  mankind  on  this  earth, 
that  of  personality,  is  distinctly,  and  it  may  be  said  solely,  the 
product  of  the  workings  of  what  we  know  as  society.  We  may 
claim,  if  we  have  a  preference  for  that  conclusion,  that  the 
person  is  the  highest  result  of  the  process  of  social  heredity. 
A  broader  and  more  scientific  conclusion,  however,  is  that 
culture  and  civilization  most  perfectly  define  what  social  her- 
edity brings  into  existence. 

[19] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

It  has  been  claimed  that  personality  brings  man  into  touch 
with  the  spiritual  world,  and  gives  him  a  like  nature  with  that 
of  God.  "Whether  this  be  true  or  not,  it  does  undoubtedly  bring 
him  into  the  most  intimate  relations  with  the  racial  life,  and 
with  all  which  is  human  in  the  past  and  in  the  present.  As 
truly,  it  binds  his  life  to  the  future,  and  makes  him  one  in 
nature  with  the  processes  which  are  to  determine  the  quality 
and  worth  of  the  coming  generations  throughout  all  the  time 
man  occupies  the  earth.  Certainly,  this  is  no  beggarly  manner 
of  defining  personality  or  any  limiting  of  the  range  of  its  ca- 
pacities and  its  possibilities. 

Defining  individuality  and  personality  in  this  manner 
leads  to  the  conclusion  that  they  are  permanent  qualities  in  the 
life  of  man,  whether  as  a  separate  physiological  entity  or  as  a 
product  of  the  social  process.  In  fact,  this  manner  of  conceiv- 
ing of  the  nature  of  man  and  of  humanity  may  add  dignity 
and  worth  to  both  of  them.  It  may  increase  the  worth  of  the 
individual  as  a  link  in  the  hereditary  process,  and  it  may 
greatly  enlarge  our  conception  of  the  social  man,  the  man  who 
belongs  to  the  vast  social  process  which  unfolds  throughout 
the  ages. 

IV 

What  is  the  social  process  of  which  mention  has  been  made 
more  than  once?  What  is  the  exact  nature  of  social  heredity, 
and  how  does  it  operate  in  the  production  of  culture  and  civili- 
zation? To  fully  comprehend  this  process  we  must  recognize 
the  fact  that  man  began  his  career  with  none  of  the  animal 
equipments  which  enable  the  lower  species  to  survive.  With- 
out weapons,  without  clothing  and  shelter,  without  claws  and 
teeth  fitted  to  serve  as  means  of  securing  food,  he  was  com- 

[20] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

pelled  to  provide  substitutes  for  these.  The  first  of  these  sub- 
stitutes was  found  in  social  combination,  in  the  use  of  the  herd 
instinct  as  a  means  of  both  securing  food  and  providing  de- 
fense. It  is  true  some  of  the  higher  animals  had  already  shown 
the  way  by  combining  in  flocks,  herds,  schools  or  packs;  and, 
rather  curiously  and  suggestively,  it  is  these  animals,  almost 
without  exception,  which  have  afforded  man  the  opportunity 
for  their  domestication. 

The  suggestion  forces  itself  upon  us,  when  we  study  man 
from  this  point  of  view,  that  the  herd  instinct  has  not  only 
led  to  the  invention  of  tools  and  weapons,  to  the  organization 
of  social  institutions,  but  even  to  the  elaboration  of  the  mind 
itself.  This  may  be  a  daring  assumption;  but  when  we  study 
intimately  the  higher  animals  with  reference  to  the  hints  they 
afford  of  mental  processes,  and  when  we  in  like  manner  study 
the  lower  races  of  men,  the  conclusion  will  suggest  itself,  not 
only  that  mental  capacity  grows  with  the  socialization  of  a 
species ;  but  that  somehow  mentality,  what  we  call  the  mind,  is 
involved  in  this  acquisition  of  capacity  for  social  combination. 

Turning  again  to  the  child  as  hinting  at  what  was  the  pro- 
cess at  work  in  the  nature  of  primitive  man,  we  discover  that 
for  the  first  years  he  is  merely  an  individual,  and  that  his  per- 
sonality develops  with  the  gaining  of  more  and  wider  con- 
tacts with  his  fellows.  It  is  quite  certain  that  self -consciousness 
is  awakened,  if  not  created,  through  social  contact  with  others. 
His  mind  broadens  and  deepens  as  his  range  of  interests  en- 
larges, that  is,  as  he  comes  to  know  more  of  what  mankind  has 
been  and  done,  as  presented  in  home,  school,  church,  society, 
the  library,  the  world  of  science  and  of  culture.  As  a  rule, 
with  many  exceptions,  his  personality  will  unfold  in  propor- 
tion as  he  is  permitted  to  come  into  contact  with,  and  to  mas- 
ter, the  resources  of  the  life  of  humanity  as  passed  on  from  the 

[21] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

past  to  the  present  in  the  form  of  history,  social  and  political 
organization,  the  sanctions  of  morality,  and  the  elaborations 
of  knowledge  and  wisdom.  If,  from  any  cause,  he  is  barred 
from  these  contacts,  by  so  much  will  his  life  be  narrowed,  and 
his  ignorance  and  mental  defect  show  the  greater. 

These  are  some  hints  that  the  mind  may  be  a  social  prod- 
uct, that  is,  a  product  of  the  whole  of  the  contacts  of  man,  as 
the  result  of  congenital  heredity,  with  what  the  race  has  ex- 
perienced as  a  continuous  process,  not  merely  in  its  individual 
or  tribal  life.  This  may  be  said,  at  least,  that  the  contents  of 
the  mind  of  the  child  on  entering  the  school,  and  of  the  indi- 
vidual throughout  the  whole  of  his  life,  come  to  him  as  the  re- 
sult of  his  membership  in  the  race,  and  his  profiting  by  what 
it  has  provided  for  his  nurturing.  Apart  from  his  racial  con- 
nections he  is  nothing,  and  can  accomplish  nothing  that  has 
any  real  significance.  Without  the  racial  contacts  man  is 
merely  an  animal,  and  may  live  only  an  animal  existence.  This 
is  such  a  mere  truism  that  it  seems  futile  to  repeat  it ;  but  it  is 
a  fact  often  disregarded,  and  one  which  many  persons  appear 
not  to  realize  as  of  the  most  fundamental  importance  to  the  re- 
cognition of  the  nature  of  the  individual  and  the  race,  and  in 
what  manner  they  are  dependent  on  each  other. 

The  individual  claim  to  freedom  must  be  recognized,  that 
he  has  a  right  to  his  own  thoughts,  and  that  in  large  measure 
he  determines  his  own  conduct ;  but  if  he  assumes,  on  the  basis 
of  his  individuality,  that  he  is  independent  of  society,  that  he 
need  not  accept  the  results  of  the  past,  that  he  is  free  to  elabor- 
ate a  moral  code  of  his  own  and  to  follow  it,  then  he  shows 
the  depths  of  his  ignorance,  and  the  futility  of  whatever  think- 
ing he  may  have  done. 

The  great  and  eternal  law  of  life,  so  far  as  man  is  con- 
cerned, is  that  of  co-operation,  social  combination,  mutual  aid, 

[22] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

and  fidelity  to  the  higher  racial  needs.  The  law  of  competition 
is  not  the  law  of  natural  selection,  and  it  has  never  been  oper- 
ative as  a  basic  principle  in  the  production  of  man  and  his 
social  institutions.  In  the  very  nature  of  competition  is  as- 
surance that  back  of  it,  and  far  greater  than  itself,  is  the  law 
of  combination,  the  method  of  the  social  process.  Man  has 
survived  and  developed  through  the  ages  because  he  has 
learned  to  recognize  his  dependence  on  the  social  process  and 
the  law  of  mutual  aid.  If  he  has  struggled  to  any  permanent 
purpose,  it  has  been  with  the  intent  of  perfecting  the  processes 
by  which  the  social  group  has  been  enlarged,  and  with  the  aid 
of  which  the  mutualities  of  life  have  extended  to  wider  and 
wider  circles  of  his  kind. 

Recognizing  the  fundamental  importance  of  the  laws  of 
heredity,  that  obedience  to  them  must  in  the  future  become 
one  of  the  cardinal  principles  of  an  ethical  life  having  the  sanc- 
/^tions  of  religion,  it  may  be  doubted  if  nature  is  more  import- 
\  ant  than  nurture,  as  claimed  by  Francis  Galton.     In  his  inter- 
<     pretation  of  heredity  Galton  was  essentially  an  aristocrat,  and 
(  he  failed  to  recognize  the  full  value  of  opportunity,  education, 
culture,  and  civilization.     The  kind  of  fact  Galton  presented 
in  the  interpretation  of  his  theories  of  heredity  was  drawn  from 
that  class  of  persons  in  society  who  have  enjoyed  all  opportun- 
ities, and  have  not  been  denied  the  great  advantages  of  educa- 
tion and  social  prestige.     He  never  definitely  dealt  with  the 
problem  as  to  what  would  have  been  the  career  of  a  son  of  a 
great  parentage,  if  that  son  had  been  shut  out  from  the  train- 
ing schools,  the  universities,  the  best  society,  the  opportunities 
which  family  position  gave  him.    Had  such  a  man  been  placed 
in  the  position  of  a  manual  laborer,  with  all  his  hereditary 
capacities  upon  him,  what  would  have  been  the  outcome  of  his 
life?    On  the  other  hand,  we  have  in  all  democratic  countries 

[23] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

many  instances  of  men  with  what  appeared  to  be  the  most  un- 
promising heredity  rising  to  the  highest  positions.  The  number 
of  such  men  and  women  assures  us  that  opportunity  counts  for 
much,  and  that  it  cannot  be  ignored  in  any  true  estimate  of 
the  forces  making  for  the  development  of  the  individual  of 
talent  and  genius. 

The  foregoing  interpretation  of  the  nature  of  social  her- 
edity, culture,  and  civilization  makes  it  certain  that  no  theory 
of  congenital  heredity  which  ignores  these  social  forces  can 
be  accepted  as  having  a  genuinely  scientific  basis.  It  is  for 
this  reason  that  the  eugenists  are  to  be  mistrusted  in  regard 
to  much  of  their  teachings.  They  have  not  taken  into  con- 
sideration all  the  facts.  To  a  large  extent  they  are  enthusiasts 
or  sectarians.  They  look  at  one  class  of  facts  and  ignore  all 
else. 

The  contents  of  the  mind  are  of  as  much  importance  as  the 
congenital  structure  of  the  mind  itself.  If  the  mind  is  left  un- 
trained, the  best  heredity  serves  the  individual  to  poor  pur- 
pose. In  fact,  no  separation  can  be  made  between  heredity 
and  culture,  as  concerns  the  full  measure  of  individual  attain- 
ment. The  defective  mind  cannot  be  fully  trained,  and  the  de- 
fective training  cannot  make  a  genius  on  the  basis  of  the  best 
heredity.  The  claim  that  supermen  can  be  produced  to  order 
by  the  processes  of  eugenics  may  be  taken  with  much  skepti- 
cism. The  social  theory  on  which  such  a  claim  is  based  is  not 
only  aristocratic  and  autocratic,  but  it  lacks  in  the  scientific 
basis  which  would  give  it  validity.  It  may  be  doubted,  too,  if 
the  elevation  of  a  few  great  minds  is  what  the  world  is  most  in 
need  to  acquire.  We  have  had  historic  observation  of  such 
men,  and  have  seen  little  good  of  these  super-geniuses.  We 
know  that  the  world  owes  much  to  its  Alexanders,  its  Caesars, 
and  its  Napoleons;  but  we  also  know  that  its  debt  to  them  is 

[24] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

of  evil  as  well  as  of  good.  We  are  not  anxious  for  more  of  their 
kind.  We  do  not  crave  for  a  larger  number  of  Bismarcks 
and  Diazes  however  valuable  they  may  have  been  in  their  time 
and  place.  It  is  the  elevation  of  the  great  population,  the 
democratization  of  the  people,  the  universal  spread  of  the 
means  of  genuine  education,  the  placing  of  opportunities  be- 
fore every  man  and  woman,  which  is  most  of  all  to  be  desired, 
not  the  eugenic  production  of  supermen. 

The  eugenic  theory  as  often  presented,  and  the  theory  of 
the  superman,  parts  of  one  whole,  is  but  a  surviving  phase  of 
the  old  aristocratic  conception  of  humanity,  that  men  are  not 
able  to  care  for  themselves;  but  that  they  have  need  of  some 
supernatural  or  highly  endowed  person  to  watch  over  their 
lives  and  to  give  meaning  to  their  existence.  Were  such  per- 
sons always  fatherly,  unselfish,  true  protectors  of  the  people, 
real  leaders  in  ways  of  wisdom  and  peace,  it  might  be  desirable 
to  have  many  of  them;  but  the  whole  history  of  mankind 
proves  that  they  have  used  their  superior  advantages,  in  a  great 
majority  of  instances,  not  as  friends  of  the  people,  but  as  their 
masters  and  as  autocratic  lords.  Such  supermen  are  more 
likely  to  be  a  hindrance  than  a  help  to  mankind.  It  is  not  to 
be  forgotten,  too,  that  the  large  majority  of  men  and  women 
are  of  sound  body  and  sane  mind,  that  they  know  their  own 
needs,  that  they  are  able  to  control  their  own  affairs,  and  that 
they  do  not  need  any  kind  of  superman  to  guide  them  in  any 
other  spirit  than  that  which  is  afforded  by  science  and  a  demo- 
cratic national  life. 

As  has  been  already  recognized,  congenital  and  social 
heredity  are  intimately  linked  to  each  other.  While  they  are 
of  quite  a  different  nature,  yet  in  their  action  they  cannot  be 
separated.  In  the  same  way,  eugenics  and  culture  are  never 
far  from  each  other  in  their  action  in  behalf  of  the  individual 

[25] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  EELIGION 

or  the  nation.  The  assertion  that  nature  is  of  far  greater  im- 
portance than  nurture  cannot  be  accepted,  for  the  reason  that 
they  act  together  when  worthy  results  are  produced.  All  at- 
tempts to  make  heredity,  in  the  form  of  eugenics,  the  dominat- 
ing force  in  social  development  must  prove  abortive. 

What  we  are  in  need  of  is  not  great  men,  but  great  ideas 
and  great  institutions.  When  we  have  the  institutions  the  men 
will  match  up  to  them.  We  can  no  longer  assume  that  great 
institutions  are  the  reflections  of  great  men,  but  quite  the 
contrary,  that  great  men  are  made  by  a  social  life  which  gives 
them  great  opportunities.  Here  again,  however,  we  must  re- 
cognize the  fact  that  the  men  and  the  institutions  fit  into  each 
other,  that  neither  can  exist  without  the  other.  If  men  make 
institutions,  it  is  not  the  less  true  that  institutions  produce  men 
who  match  with  them.  They  are  but  the  two  sides  of  the  same 
shield. 


The  study  of  religion  in  all  its  phases,  from  that  of  the  I 
most  primitive  peoples  to  that  of  the  most  highly  civilized, 
makes  it  quite  certain  that  in  all  its  earlier  stages  it  is  most 
intimately  bound  up  with  the  social  life.  It  is,  in  fact,  impos- 
sible to  distinguish  it  from  the  social  grouping,  as  it  unfolds  to 
mefrt  the  needs  of  the  primitive  bands,  clans  or  tribes.  This 
intimacy  of  association  is  so  great  that  Durkheim,  in  his  work 
on  Les  Formes  elementaires  de  la  vie  religieuse,  translated  as 
The  Elementary  Forms  of  the  Religious  Life,  is  of  the  opinion 
that  religion  is  at  the  basis  of  all  social,  political,  scientific  and 
philosophical  development.  It  comes  first  in  the  developing 
life  of  primitive  peoples,  and  all  else  expands  from  it,  or  re- 
sults from  it  by  processes  of  differentiation.  Whether  this  be 

[26] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

true  to  the  full  extent  that  Durkheim  suggests  or  not,  it  is  un- 
doubtedly the  fact  that  social  growth  and  religious  develop- 
ment are  at  first  not  distinguishable  from  each  other. 

This  unity  of  society  and  religion  has  led  most  of  the 
writers  on  subjects  connected  with  the  new  science  of  Com- 
parative Religion  to  assert  in  a  quite  positive  manner,  that 
religion  in  all  its  earlier  stages  is  distinctly  of  a  social  nature. 
Such  is  the  character  of  this  tendency  to  the  socialization  of 
.religion,  that  in  the  band,  clan  or  tribe  the  individual  has  no 
opportunity  for  self-assertion.  There  are  then  no  heretics  and/' 
no  skeptics.  The  life  of  the  clan  is  a  religious  life,  and  religion'' 
has  no  existence  whatever  apart  from  the  clan  life.  This  is 
one  reason  why  in  all  early  societies  the  progress  of  religion 
is  very  slow;  and  it  is  of  such  a  nature  that  degeneracy  may 
appear,  as  well  as  progress.  The  man  of  superior  mental 
powers  may  be  able  to  suggest  new  rituals  or  modifications  of 
old  ones,  provided  he  does  this  in  harmony  with  that  which  is 
the  established  custom  and  ritual  of  his  group.  He  can  in- 
troduce no  great  innovations,  for  the  simple  reason  that  the 
clan  is  not  ready  to  receive  them.  Far  more  likely  is  it,  that 
he  does  not  make  any  but  the  slightest  suggestions  as  to  such 
modifications;  but,  if  others  of  the  more  vigorous  minds  asso- 
ciate with  him  in  this  process,  the  changes  he  proposes  may  be 
brought  into  active  operation. 

Why  religion  has  always  been  extremely  conservative, 
and  especially  so  in  all  the  early  ages,  it  is  very  desirable  that 
we  should  understand  in  the  study  of  the  evolution  of  this 
phase  of  human  progress.  It  has  been  conservative  as  the  re- 
sult of  its  social  nature  and  its  methods  of  development,  be- 
cause it  has  never  been  distinctly  an  individual  process;  but 
one  that  was  fundamentally  and  intimately  associated  with, 
and  expressive  of,  the  demands  of  man's  social  nature. 

[27] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

Some  familiar  historic  illustrations  of  the  manner  in  which 
religion  has  expressed  itself,  as  intimately  associated  with  the 
social  developments  of  peoples,  may  help  us  to  comprehend 
more  fully  this  phase  of  its  evolution.  No  people  of  the  an- 
cient world  was  more  progressive  and  mentally  alert  than  the 
Greeks,  and  yet  their  religion  was  not  that  of  individuals,  but 
that  of  the  city  and  that  of  its  institutions.  It  is  true  that  such 
men  as  Socrates,  Plato,  and  Aristotle  were  in  large  degree  in- 
dependent thinkers,  and  suggested  modifications  of  the  estab- 
lished religion  of  great  importance,  and  that  they  have  had  a 
large  influence  on  the  subsequent  ages. 

Any  intimate  study,  however,  of  the  rites,  festivals,  and 
"mysteries"  of  the  religion  of  the  Greek  people,  shows  the 
large  degree  to  which  these  were  customary,  traditional,  and 
ritualistic.  Athens  had  its  skeptics,  but  few  other  Greek  cities 
I  showed  this  development  of  individuality  in  any  considerable 
\  degree.  Dances,  songs,  festivals,  marches  in  processions,  dra- 
matic expressions  of  religious  rituals  —  these  showed  the  true 
type  of  the  Greek  religion.  The  great  Mystery  of  Eleusis, 
the  celebration  of  the  advent  and  adventures  of  the  Mother 
and  the  Maid,  expressed  the  truly  social  character  of  the 
religion  of  Athens,  that  most  highly  civilized  and  intellectual 
of  all  the  Greek  communities. 

Some  interpreters  of  religion,  in  its  historical  develop- 
ments, are  ready  to  admit  that  the  early  religions  are  essen- 
tially of  a  social  nature,  but  they  insist  that  the  later  manifesta- 
tions of  its  qualities  show  it  to  be  of  an  individual  nature,  and 
not  dependent  on  the  influences  of  society.  In  large  measure 
this  seems  to  be  the  position  of  William  James  in  his  Varieties 
of  Religious  Experience.  The  instances  he  gives  in  that  un- 
usually interesting  work  are  largely  of  individual  experiences. 
He  selects  the  mystics,  those  of  a  highly  sensitive  development 

[28] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF   RELIGION 

as  concerns  religious  manifestations,  as  illustrative  of  the  man- 
ner in  which  religion  has  expressed  itself,  and  of  the  processes 
by  means  of  which  it  has  grown  from  age  to  age.    It  is  a  re- 
markable fact,  however,  that  William  James,  in  selecting  such 
individuals  as  typical  of  religion  and  its  growth-processes,  has 
hit  upon,  almost  invariably  those  types  of  religious  expression 
/which  are  abnormal  or  pathological.    The  result  was  that,  for 
\  the  most  part,  he  ignored  those  phases  of  religion  which  lead  y 
s  to  assemblies  of  those  like-minded,  and  that  he  overlooks  the 
/  church  and  every  kind  of  religious  congregation.    In  only  one 
v  of  his  lectures  did  he  deal  with  the  social  or  normal  phases  of 
religious  manifestation,  that  of  the  great  mass  of  mankind  in 
all  ages. 

It  can  be  truly  said  that  William  James  has  given  us  the 
most  interesting  and  suggestive  book  as  yet  published  dealing 
with  the  nature  and  processes  of  religious  expression.  At  the 
same  time  it  is  one  of  the  most  misleading  of  all  modern  books 
on  religion,  for  the  simple  reason  that  he  deals  almost  wholly 
with  the  special,  the  peculiar,  the  distinctly  individual  phases 
of  religion.  In  his  second  lecture  he  defines  religion  as  "the 
feelings,  acts,  and  experiences  of  individual  men  in  their  soli- 
tude, so  far  as  they  apprehend  themselves  to  stand  in  relation 
to  whatever  they  may  consider  the  divine."  He  regards  the- 
ologies, philosophies,  and  ecclesiastical  organizations  as  merely 
secondary  growths  from  these  individual  experiences,  in  which 
alone  does  religion  have  its  origin.  In  regard  to  the  relations 
of  personal  and  institutional  forms  of  religion  James  has  this 
to  say:  "Worship  and  sacrifice,  procedures  for  working  on 
the  dispositions  of  the  deity,  theology  and  ceremony  and  ec- 
clesiastical organization,  are  the  essentials  of  religion  in  the 
institutional  branch.  Were  we  to  limit  our  view  to  it,  we 
should  have  to  define  religion  as  an  external  art,  the  art  of  win- 

[29] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

ning  the  favor  of  the  gods.  In  the  more  personal  branch  of 
religion  it  is  on  the  contrary  the  inner  dispositions  of  man  him- 
self which  forms  the  center  of  interest,  his  conscience,  his  des- 
erts, his  helplessness,  his  incompleteness.  And  although  the 
favor  of  the  god,  as  forfeited  or  gained,  is  still  an  essential 
feature  of  the  story,  and  theology  plays  a  vital  part  therein, 
yet  the  acts  to  which  this  sort  of  religion  prompts  are  personal 
not  ritual  acts,  the  individual  transacts  the  business  by  himself 
alone,  and  the  ecclesiastical  organization,  with  its  priests  and 
sacraments  and  other  go-betweens,  sinks  to  an  altogether  sec- 
ondary place.  The  relation  goes  direct  from  heart  to  heart, 
from  soul  to  soul,  between  man  and  his  maker. ' ' 

James  proceeds  to  inform  his  hearers  that  he  proposes  in 
his  lectures  to  ignore  the  institutional  branch  of  religion  al- 
together, to  say  nothing  of  ecclesiastical  organization,  and  to 
consider  systematic  theology  as  little  as  possible.  That  is,  he 
proposes  to  confine  himself  to  individual  religion  pure  and 
simple.  Which  means,  that  he  ignores  entirely  the  historical 
phases  of  religion,  that  he  feels  no  concern  as  to  its  evolution, 
and  that  he  does  not  connect  it  with  culture  and  civilization. 

It  cannot  be  doubted  that  amongst  the  more  advanced  peo- 
ples, with  whom  James  mostly  deals,  the  abnormal  and  patho- 
logical types  of  religious  devotees  have  had  a  very  great  in- 
fluence in  modifying  religious  rituals  and  beliefs,  and  of  turn- 
ing religion  in  new  directions.  The  changes  thus  brought 
about,  however,  have  been  too  often  in  directions  full  of  excess, 
wild  enthusiasms,  and  irrational  beliefs.  It  is  not  from  the 
abnormal  and  pathological  individuals,  who  see  visions,  and 
enter  into  worlds  not  known  to  the  ordinary  man  and  woman, 
that  we  are  to  gain  the  rational,  sane,  and  vigorously  moral 
development  the  future  demands. 

[30] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF   RELIGION 

It  is  characteristic  of  the  later  and  higher  religious  devel- 
\  opments,  such  as  are  found  in  the  greater  religions,  -  -  Bud- 
dhism, Christianity,  and  Mohammedanism,  —  that  they  have 
Iliad  individual  founders.  Even  these  religions,  however,  have 
not  been  able  to  escape  the  phases  of  growth  which  have  come 
from  the  pathological.  The  influence  of  Paul  on  the  theo- 
logical development  of  Christianity  has  probably  been  greater 
than  that  of  any  other  man,  and  yet  much  time  has  been  spent 
in  discussing  the  nature  of  his  pathological  defect,  and  the  ex- 
tent of  its  influence  upon  his  religious  attitude  and  beliefs. 
Mohammed  was  also  in  no  small  degree  the  victim  of  some 
form  of  abnormal  mental  development,  which  undoubtedly  had 
a  large  influence  in  shaping  the  character  of  the  religion  which 
originated  with  him.  It  may  be  doubted  if  any  man  is  quite 
wholly  sane  who  is  willing  to  desert  wife  and  child  and  social 
responsibilities  for  the  life  of  an  ascetic,  as  in  the  instance  of 
the  Buddha. 

A  more  truly  scientific  conception  of  the  relations  of  reli- 
gion to  the  pathological  than  is  that  of  William  James  may  be 
found  in  the  works  of  Sigmund  Freud,  the  originator  and  inter- 
preter of  what  he  calls  psychoanalysis^  As  a  student  of  hyp- 
nosis and  its  kindred  phases  of  dealing  with  abnormal  mental 
conditions,  and  as  a  working  physician,  he  developed  a  new 
method  for  treating  all  phases  of  neurotic  disturbance.  In 
the  course  of  his  investigations  into  these  abnormal  mental 
conditions  he  also  has  contributed  largely  to  the  psychology 
of  the  normal  life  of  the  individual  and  of  races.  In  his  book 
on  The  Interpretation  of  Dreams,  that  on  Hysteria  and  other 
Psychoneuroses,  that  on  The  Psychology  of  Everyday  Life, 
and  especially  in  that  on  Totem  and  Taboo  he  has  presented  a 
new  and  scientific  psychology.  While  these  works  do  not  deal 
directly  with  religion  in  any  of  its  forms,  they  throw  a  flood 

[31] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

of  light  on  the  methods  of  its  evolution,  especially  with  refer- 
ence to  all  which  is  pathological  and  mystical  in  its  nature. 
Freud  differs  widely  from  James,  in  that  he  regards  the  ab- 
normal phases  of  religious  growth  as  not  only  individual  in 
their  origin  and  nature,  but  as  leading  away  from  what  is 
healthy  and  normal.  He  also  recognizes  the  mass  or  group 
phases  of  religious  evolution,  and  that  among  all  primitive 
peoples  it  is  the  group,  and  not  the  individual,  who  really  gives 
direction  to  the  growth  which  is  made. 

In  the  concluding  pages  of  his  Totem  and  Taboo  Freud 
says  that  he  bases  everything  upon  the  assumption  of  a  psyche 
of  the  mass  in  which  psychic  processes  occur  as  in  the  psychic 
life  of  the  individual.  On  the  succeeding  page  he  says  that 
without  the  assumption  of  a  mass  psyche,  or  a  continuity  in 
the  emotional  life  of  mankind  which  permits  us  to  disregard 
the  interruptions  of  the  psychic  acts  through  the  transgression 
of  individuals,  social  psychology  could  not  exist  at  all.  If 
psychic  processes  of  one  generation  did  not  continue  in  the 
next,  if  each  had  to  acquire  its  attitude  towards  life  afresh, 
there  would  be  no  progress  in  this  field  and  almost  no  develop- 
ment. 

In  the  same  work,  treating  of  the  ambivalence  or  twofold 
division  of  the  emotions,  and  at  the  very  end  of  that  essay, 
Freud  again  recognizes  the  intimate  relations  of  individual 
neuroses  to  the  conditions  of  the  racial  life,  that  is,  the  life 
of  mankind  in  the  mass.  On  this  subject  he  says:  "In  one 
way  the  neuroses  show  a  striking  and  far-reaching  corres- 
pondence with  the  great  social  productions  of  art,  religion 
and  philosophy,  while  again  they  seem  like  distortions  of  them. 
We  may  say  that  hysteria  is  a  caricature  of  an  artistic  crea- 
tion, a  compulsory  neurosis  a  caricature  of  a  religion,  and  a 
paranoic  delusion  a  caricature  of  a  philosophic  system.  In 

[32] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF   RELIGION 

the  last  analysis  this  deviation  goes  back  to  the  fact  that  the 
neuroses  are  social  formations;  they  seek  to  accomplish  by 
private  means  what  arose  in  society  through  collective  labor. " 
It  will  be  seen  that  this  is  the  very  opposite  of  the  method 
followed  by  James,  and  that  it  asserts  for  the  normal  life  of 
man,  as  well  as  for  religion,  conditions  which  arise  out  of  the 
social  experiences  of  the  group.  All  forms  of  the  abnormal, 
all  phases  of  neurotic  disease,  come  from  what  is  asocial,  and 
from  an  excessive  emphasis  on  the  demands  of  the  individual. 
A  normal  life  is  a  social  life,  and  no  religion  that  is  radically 
individualistic  can  be  in  any  true  sense  normal  or  sound.  In 
any  true  meaning  of  the  word,  religion  is  always  a  phase  of 
mass  thought  and  action. 


VI 

Coming  to  the  ordinary,  normal  and  sane  developments 
of  religion,  we  need  have  little  difficulty  in  understanding  the 
manner  in  which  they  operate  in  order  to  make  a  nation  of 
Christians  or  of  Buddhists.  It  cannot  be  supposed  that  all,, 
persons  in  the  United  States  become  at  least  nominally  Chris- 
tians, all  in  China  Buddhists,  or  all  in  Persia  Mohammedans, 
simply  and  solely  of  their  own  individual  choice  and  prefer- 
ence. Recognizing  the  fact  that  fashion,  conventionality,  and 
the  pressure  of  social  demand,  have  a  great  influence  in  deter- 
mining what  we  believe,  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  the  great 
majority  of  a  vast  population  accept  without  thought  the  reli- 
gious practices  and  beliefs  of  the  social  world  around  them. 
As  we  have  already  seen,  we  speak  English,  and  the  people 

\  of  China  speak  Chinese,  for  the  reason  that  English  presents 
itself  to  the  child  born  in  this  country,  and  Chinese  to  the  child 

.   born  in  China.     The  child  born  in  this  country  of  American 

[33] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

parents,  who  speak  English,  and  that  only,  would,  if  carried 
to  China  in  infancy,  and  heard  Chinese  only,  acquire  Chinese 
as  readily  as  it  now  does  English.  The  child  is  born  with  a 
greater  or  lesser  degree  of  speech-capacity,  but  its  heredity 
does  not  give  it  even  the  slightest  preference  for  one  language 
over  another.  There  is  nothing  in  the  nature  of  the  Chinese 
people  which  makes  their  language  congenitally  preferable 
for  them  as  a  people;  and  there  is  nothing  in  the  American 
nature  which  makes  English  to  be  acquired  more  readily  by 
an  American  child  than  Chinese.  The  process  of  language 
acquisition  is  wholly  social,  and  the  speech  accepted  by  any 
child  is  due  solely  to  its  culture-environment.  It  is  impossible 
that  the  infant  should  make  a  choice  of  the  language  it  shall 
acquire,  and  it  readily  accepts  what  is  given  it  by  those  who 
surround  it  in  the  most  plastic  and  receptive  period  of  its 
life.  At  a  later  period  it  may  acquire  other  languages  because 
of  some  definite  preference ;  but  this  cannot  be  true  for  the  in- 
fant. 

What  is  true  of  language  is  also  true  of  religion.  We  do 
not  choose  our  religion  when  we  are  young,  but  we  find  it  all 
about  us  in  the  life  of  the  community  which  gives  us  our 
earliest  social  environment.  If  that  environment  is  Roman 
Catholic  we  accept  that  form  of  religion  as  naturally  as  the 
infant  seeks  its  mother's  breast.  We  have  no  choice  as  to  the 
religion  we  acquire ;  and  society  and  the  religion  see  to  it  that 
we  do  not  have  a  choice.  That  may  come  later  when  we  find 
that  there  are  other  religions  in  the  world,  and  when  our  edu- 
cational processes  fit  us  to  appreciate  some  other  than  the  one 
of  our  social  environment  in  childhood.  The  child,  by  the  very 
nature  of  its  mentality,  its  imitativeness  and  its  receptive  capac- 
ities, accepts  whatever  is  presented  to  it  daily  and  hourly. 

[34] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

It  can  do  no  other,  and  therefore  it  takes  what  the  social  en- 
vironment offers  it  for  its  acceptance. 

How  else  could  the  child  live,  and  grow,  and  come  to  man's 
and  woman's  estate?  In  the  modern  world,  in  due  time,  the 
child  learns  to  think  for  itself,  to  form  its  own  judgments, 
and  to  select  its  own  religion.  It  is  true,  however,  that  the 
majority  of  men  and  women,  even  in  the  most  highly  advanced 
of  modern  nations,  retain  throughout  life  the  religion  in  which 
they  were  trained  in  childhood  and  youth.  It  has  been  shown 
by  several  students  of  the  psychology  of  religion  that  the 
greatest  number  of  conversions  take  place  in  youth.  It  is  then 
the  majority  of  persons  acquire  their  religion,  and  unite  with 
the  religious  organization  with  which  they  have  been  asso- 
ciated from  childhood.  Perhaps  the  number  of  religious  ad- 
venturers, who  connect  themselves  with  some  other  religious 
body  than  that  into  which  it  may  be  said  they  were  born,  or 
who  withdraw  from  all  religious  associations,  increases  in 
these  modern  days;  but  even  with  these  persons  it  is  almost 
always  some  modifying  study  or  social  contact  which  ulti- 
mately leads  to  a  change  of  religious  connections. 

New  religions  come  into  the  world  from  time  to  time,  all 
of  which  have  in  some  form  or  another  grown  out  of  preceding 
religions,  as  Christianity  grew  out  of  Judaism  and  Buddhism 
out  of  Brahmanism.  However  great  the  founder  of  a  new  re- 
ligion, he  must  bring  it  into  harmony,  in  some  degree,  with 
his  environing  world  or  it  will  not  live.  All  the  higher  reli- 
gions show  this  necessity,  and  indicate  that  no  person  can  dis- 
regard the  social  processes  ever  at  work  in  human  society.  It 
is  a  simple  fact  of  history,  that  all  religious  prophets  and 
founders  at  first  are  rejected  of  men,  that  they  are  not  wel- 
comed save  by  the  few.  Mohammed  found  his  first  converts 
in  his  own  family,  but  for  several  years  he  had  no  other  f ol- 

[35] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

lowers.  In  the  history  of  Islam  no  event  is  of  such  signifi- 
cance as  the  hejira,  his  flight  from  Mecca  to  Medina,  because 
his  tribesmen  would  not  accept  his  teachings  and  did  not  be- 
lieve in  his  visions. 

Every  new  religion,  every  fresh  development  of  religion, 
must  pass  out  of  the  personal  stage,  and  become  socialized, 
before  it  can  meet  with  a  success  that  is  enduring  and  effective. 
Again  and  again  this  has  been  shown  to  be  true  in  the  history 
of  religion.  Every  existing  religion  offers  testimony  to  its 
truth.  A  few  instances  of  the  process  by  which  this  takes 
place  may  be  cited.  Mithraism,  which  originated  in  Persia, 
was  the  greatest  of  the  rivals  of  Christianity  during  the  earliest 
years  of  its  development.  More  than  any  other  religion  of  the 
age  it  threatened  for  a  period  to  become  the  faith  of  the  Medi- 
terranean world  in  the  place  of  Christianity.  It  was  largely 
accepted  by  the  men  of  the  Roman  armies  in  every  province 
where  they  were  to  be  found;  and  it  had  a  ritual  and  a  series 
of  ceremonials  which  were  in  many  respects  more  impressive 
than  any  Christianity  could  offer.  Why  did  Mithraism  dis- 
appear and  Christianity  succeed?  Two  suggestions  may  be 
made  in  answer  to  this  query.  Christianity,  in  its  early  stages, 
was  very  distinctly  a  religion  of  the  working-class,  of  the 
great  mass  of  the  people  within  the  Roman  Empire.  On  the 
other  hand,  Mithraism  was  especially  acceptable  to  men  of 
virile  character.  Christianity,  also,  made  a  much  larger  appeal 
upon  women,  who  accepted  it  with  eagerness,  and  helped  large- 
ly to  win  for  it  enduring  success.  On  the  other  hand,  women 
were  not  admitted  to  the  Mithraic  church. 

An  Egyptian  ruler  of  the  fifteenth  century  B.  C.,  by  name 
Khu-en-Aten,  (afterwards  Ikhnaton)  who  as  a  sovereign  was 
known  as  Amenophis  IV,  undertook  to  introduce  a  new  type 
of  religion  into  that  venerable  land.  He  had  become  an  embryo 

[36] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF   EELIGION 

monotheist,  and  sought  to  induce  his  people  to  recognize  that 
there  is  only  one  great  universal  ruler  in  the  universe.  He 
named  the  solar  disk  Aten-Ra,  and  regarded  it  as  a  symbol  of 
deity,  the  highest  expression  of  the  divine  reality.  He  elabor- 
ated this  worship,  blotted  out  from  the  monuments  the  evi- 
dences of  the  old  polytheistic  worships  and  the  names  of  the 
old  gods.  While  Khu-en-Aten  was  alive  he  carried  all  before 
him,  and  his  religion  was  universally  accepted. 

J.  H.  Breasted,  in  his  Religion  and  Thought  in  Ancient 
Egypt  says  that  Aton,  this  new  god,  in  his  fatherly  solicitude 
for  all  creatures,  lifts  "the  movement  of  Ikhnaton  far  above 
all  that  had  before  been  attained  in  the  religion  of  Egypt  or 
of  the  whole  East  before  this  time."  Referring  to  the  state- 
ments of  this  new  faith,  and  its  embodiment  in  hymns  and 
sayings,  Breasted  remarks;  "all  this  discloses  a  discernment 
of  the  presence  of  God  in  nature,  and  an  appreciation  of  the 
revelation  of  God  in  the  visible  world  such  as  we  find  a  thou- 
sand years  later  in  the  Hebrew  psalms,  and  in  our  own  poets 
of  nature  since  Wordsworth. ' '  One  of  the  assertions  of  faith  in 
God  is  in  these  words:  "Whether  he  is  in  the  sky  or  on  earth, 
all  eyes  behold  him  without  ceasing;  he  fills  every  land  with 
his  rays,  and  makes  all  men  to  live;  with  beholding  who  may 
my  eyes  be  satisfied  daily,  while  he  dawns  in  the  house  of 
Aton  and  fills  it  with  his  self  by  his  beams  beauteous  in  love, 
and  lays  them  upon  me  in  satisfying  life  for  ever  and  ever." 

Soon  after  Ikhnaton  had  passed  to  the  world  of  his  fathers, 
his  faith,  and  his  worship  of  the  new  god,  were  rejected 
throughout  his  empire,  and  the  old  faith  and  the  old  worship 
were  brought  back  in  every  part  of  the  kingdom.  We  of  to- 
day judge  that  this  was  a  very  remarkable  instance  of  a  striv- 
ing after  a  monotheistic  faith,  and  that  the  religion  of  Khu-en- 
Aten  was  distinctly  better  than  that  which  it  superseded.  He 

[37] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

had  failed,  however,  to  convince  the  Egyptian  people  and  es- 
pecially the  priesthood  of  Amon  of  this  superiority.  That  is, 
he  had  failed  to  socialize  his  religion,  had  not  brought  it  home 
to  the  convictions  of  the  people.  The  result  was  that  soon 
after  he  was  dead  all  that  he  established  was  ruthlessly  swept 
away,  and  even  his  own  name  was  removed  from  the  monu- 
ments he  had  erected  in  honor  of  the  new  god.  This  is  one 
of  the  most  remarkable  of  the  historical  instances  of  a  great 
religious  reform  failing  because  it  failed  to  convince  the  mass 
of  the  people.  The  old  faith  came  back  in  all  its  power,  and 
it  is  only  in  recent  years  that  we  have  come  to  know  of  this 
abortive  attempt  to  create  a  new  religion  in  that  far-off  age. 
These  historic  instances  illustrate  the  law  that  a  religion 
must  be  socialized  in  order  to  endure  and  become  successful. 
It  must  become  the  method  of  social  expression  of  a  clan, 
tribe,  city  or  state  or  it  will  not  win  its  way  to  any  large  place 
in  the  life  of  mankind.  The  method  of  socialization  is  that 
which  has  been  already  suggested,  namely,  the  giving  it  prestige 
by  its  acceptance  in  childhood  and  youth.  This  cannot  be  at 
first  the  method  of  its  diffusion,  and  therefore  it  wins  its  way 
slowly  and  through  much  tribulation.  Its  earliest  followers 
must  accept  contumely,  scorn,  hate,  and  even  persecution. 
They  must  also  accept  the  fact  that  few  minds  are  at  any  time 
prepared  to  change  their  religion  wholly,  and  to  make  the 
sacrifices  necessary  to  the  success  of  the  new  religion  they 
adopt.  Because  most  of  those  who  accept  the  new  religion 
bring  with  them  the  remnants  of  their  early  training,  and 
because  any  such  religion  meets  with  the  conditions,  and 
the  antagonism,  on  every  hand,  of  the  established  religions, 
which  have  been  in  existence  through  many  centuries,  and  may 
have  come  out  of  an  antique  past,  it  follows  that  it  will  not  for 
more  than  a  generation  or  two  remain  true  to  its  founder. 

[38] 


\ 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  EELIGION 


All  religious  history  shows  us  that  new  religions,  and 
modifications  of  old  religions,  in  a  short  time  depart  from  the 
teachings  of  their  founders.  It  is  repeatedly  asserted  that 
Christianity  has  never  followed  truly  the  teachings  of  Christ, 
but  has  been  modified  in  a  great  number  of  directions.  There- 
fore, we  read  of  the  "corruptions  of  Christianity;"  in  a  word, 
it  is  pointed  out  that  the  Christianity  of  our  age,  as  of  pre- 
ceding ages,  is  not  that  of  its  founder.  It  may  be  heard,  even, 
that  the  religion  of  Christ  has  never  been  put  into  practice. 
Such  a  statement,  in  so  far  as  it  is  true  at  all,  is  equally  true 
of  Buddhism  and  of  Mohammedanism.  The  Buddhists  tell  us 
of  the  greater  and  of  the  lesser  vehicles  of  their  sacred  writ- 
ings ;  and  we  know  from  many  sources  that  the  faith  of  eastern 
lands  is  not  the  faith  found  in  the  earliest  Buddhist  traditions. 
Buddha  found  no  place  in  his  religion  for  a  personal  god ;  but 
he  has  been  himself  elevated  to  that  position,  and  in  the 
Buddhism  of  China  and  Japan,  as  well  as  other  countries 
where  it  is  accepted,  gods  many  have  been  developed  by  this 
godless  religion.  In  the  same  way,  and  for  the  same  reason, 
a  religion  that  spoke  of  Nibbana  (Nirvana),  a  future  life  of 
absorption  into  universal  being,  has  developed  creeds  teach- 
ing a  positive  personal  immortality. 

The  fact  of  the  first  importance  to  be  recognized,  in  con- 
nection with  the  nature  and  the  history  of  religion,  is  that  it 
is  distinctly  and  inevitably  social  in  its  origin  and  in  its 
development.  It  may  be  accepted  by  the  individual,  and  there 
may  be  personal  expressions  of  its  essential  qualities;  but  in 
itself  and  in  its  fundamental  nature  religion  is  social,  one  of 
the  greatest  manisfestations  of  the  social  nature  of  man.  It 
has  its  origin,  therefore,  in  the  social  needs  of  human  com- 
munities, and  it  voices  their  demand  for  the  unity  and  sover- 
eignty of  the  group  life.  Whatever  other  sources  religion 

[39] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  EELIGION 

may  have,  whether  of  intuition,  inspiration  from  some  super- 
natural source,  or  revelation  from  a  divine  being,  it  remains, 
and  is  essentially  a  product  or  manisfestation  of  the  social 
demands  of  human  nature*.  "We  have  no  right  to  dogmatize 
in  regard  to  the  extra-social  sources  of  religion,  its  super- 
*  /natural  origin  and  character,  that  is,  as  to  the  claimed  sources 
in  intuition  or  revelation;  but,  from  whatever  such  source 
religion  may  come,  if  it  comes  from  any,  it  must  become 
socialized  before  it  can  have  any  permanent  and  enduring 
effect  on  the  life  of  tribes  and  nations. 

Accepting  for  the  moment,  at  least,  all  that  has  been 
claimed  in  regard  to  the  divine  nature  and  mission  of  Christ 
as  a  Saviour  of  the  world,  there  is  overwhelming  historical  evi- 
dence that  his  religion  met  with  no  large  and  permanent 
success  until  it  had  secured  for  itself  a  fellowship  in  the  life 
of  the  generations  immediately  following  his  time.  Crucified, 
reviled,  rejected  as  a  heretic  and  busybody,  his  religion  won 
only  after  a  struggle  of  three  or  four  centuries,  and  then 
gained  political  power  only  by  means  of  questionable  value 
to  its  integrity  as  a  reforming  force  in  the  Roman  Empire. 

This  is  perhaps  only  saying  in  another  way,  that  in  reli- 
gion, as  elsewhere,  it  is  requisite  that  there  shall  be  secured  a 
body  of  earnest  followers  in  order  that  an  institution  or  an 
ideal  shall  win  to  an  enduring  permanence.  Something  more 
than  this,  however,  was  essential  to  the  perpetuation  of  Chris- 
tianity and  the  failure  of  Mithraism.  The  new  religion,  first 
of  all,  must  fit  into  the  old  religious  ideals  to  a  degree  which 
insures  that  it  will  be  accepted  widely.  Then  it  is  necessary 
that  it  shall  appeal  to  youth,  to  woman,  and  to  the  great  demo- 
cratic mass  of  the  people.  In  this  regard,  it  is  of  great  interest 
that  the  early  followers  of  Jesus  were  all  young  men,  in  the 
most  susceptible  period  of  their  manhood.  The  elders,  the 

[40] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF   RELIGION 

Sanhedrin,  the  scribes,  did  not  follow  him;  but  youth,  men  of 
the  crafts,  and  the  women  who  had  known  him,  constituted 
the  earliest  fellowship  gathering  about  the  new  religion.  So 
it  has  ever  been  in  the  history  of  religion.  All  of  which  means, 
that  religion  wins  because  of  its  social  appeal,  its  power  to  cre- 
ate a  comradeship  of  devoted  and  faithful  disciples,  around 
which  may  gather  a  fellowship  or  a  church-community. 

Here  we  have,  then,  the  first  fact  to  recognize  in  the 
interpretation  of  the  history  of  religion,  that  it  is  the  vital 
life  of  a  community,  the  energizing  force  in  a  human  fellow- 
ship. However  a  religion  may  come  into  existence,  however 
supreme  and  divine  its  origin,  it  cannot  win  the  devotion  of 
a  clan,  a  city,  or  a  state,  until  it  becomes  the  cementing  social 
attraction  within  that  community,  binding  together  all  its 
members  and  all  its  interests.  The  real  significance  of  any 
religion  is  to  be  found  in  this  ability  to  create  social  bonds,  to 
establish  an  ideal  fellowship,  to  furnish  the  cement  that  will 
hold  together  all  antagonistic  and  recreant  forces  tending  to 
its  disintegration  and  destruction.  Through  however  many 
generations  and  ages  it  may  live,  it  will  be  enduring  in  pro- 
portion to  its  ability  to  charm  youth,  and  to  create  a  fellow- 
ship that  will  endure  all  tests  and  all  distractions. 

The  purport  of  these  statements  is,  that  religion  is  depen- 
dent on  culture  and  civilization;  and  that  the  growth  of  these 
is  promoted  by  great  universal  processes  inherent  in  the  rela- 
tions of  man  to  the  universe  in  which  he  has  had  his  origin 
and  his  evolution.  Religion  is  not  something  apart  from  these 
causes  of  man's  progress  through  the  ages,  but  an  innermost 
phase  of  his  evolution.  As  it  were,  it  is  the  inmost  core  of 
civilization,  the  ultimate  in  progress.  So  regarding  it,  it  may 
be  wise  to  set  down  here  some  hint,  as  to  the  causes  of  human 
progress.  To  do  so  may  justify  the  conception  that  religion 

[41] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

is  as  wide  in  its  manifestations  as  the  whole  range  of  life  and 
all  its  expansions  through  the  ages. 

VII 

Precedent  to  any  study  of  the  causes  of  human  progress 
we  must  recognize  (a)  that  men  are  the  same  in  nature  in 
all  ages  and  under  all  forms  of  society  (the  brain  has  not 
enlarged  for  many  thousands  of  years,  and  apparently  the 
powers  of  the  individual  mind  have  not  increased)  ;  (b)  that 
progress  does  not  consist  in  a  radical  change  in  the  structure 
of  the  mind  or  in  the  fundamental  character  of  social  trans- 
mission; (c)  that  progress  results  from  a  change  in  the  en- 
vironment of  man,  either  material  or  social,  in  the  creating 
of  new  social  arts,  industries,  institutions,  and  methods  of 
culture,  and  in  the  increase  of  facilities  for  their  transmission. 
Recognizing  these  primary  conditions  some  of  the  causes  of 
social  and  religious  progress  may  be  suggested  in  the  follow- 
ing statements : — 

1.  Childhood,  and  its  inventive  capacities,  especially  in 
the  direction  of  the  invention  of  new  words,  and  in  slight 
degree  the  ideas  which  they  represent,  is  one  of  these  causes. 
Children  are  not  as  yet  brought  under  the  spell  of  tradition 
and  social  custom,  and  therefore  they  are  free  to  exercise  their 
inventive  skill  in  devising  new  plays,   customs,  words,   and 
habits  or  thought.     These  become  fixed  in  the  social  group 
which  acts  together,  and  may  be  passed  on  to  the  larger  life 
of  the  clan  and  tribe  or  to  the  later  human  groupings. 

2.  In  adolescence  the  youth  no  longer  conforms  always 
to  the  demands  of  tradition  and  custom,  which  he  may  discard 
in  a  somewhat  revolutionary  spirit.    It  is  well  known  that  in 
this  period  many  persons  revolt  in  one  degree  or  another  from 

[42] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

what  has  been  implicitly  accepted  in  childhood,  and  break  out 
ways  of  their  own.  The  group  of  initiates  who  enter  the  tribe 
at  the  same  time  may  bring  to  the  tribal  life  fresh  ways  and 
ideas  at  this  period;  and  the  individual  may  persuade  his  as- 
sociates to  adopt  what  has  newly  come  to  him  as  result  of 
revolutionary  tendencies. 

3.  Women  also  contribute  their  share  to  making  progress 
possible,  though  it  is  not  always  adequately  recognized.    The 
earliest  division  of  labor,  that  between  women  and  men,  un- 
doubtedly had  considerable  social  consequences.     Women  in 
early  society  invented  the  primary  arts  and  agriculture,  and 
they  gave  a  distinct  impulse  to  the  evolution  of  religion  and 
morals.    Their  influence  as  mothers  in  the  development  of  the 
family,  in  the  creation  of  social  sympathy,  in  the  growth  of 
moral  convictions,  and  in  the  evolution  of  humane  purposes 
seems  to  have  been  very  considerable. 

4.  Of  very  great  importance  was  the  invention  of  tools 
and  weapons.    The  discovery  of  the  bow  and  arrow,  the  hoe, 
skin-dressing,    spinning    and    weaving,    pottery,    the    use    of 
metals  and  the  methods  of  transportation  represented  by  the 
boat,  the  cart  and  the  taming  of  the  horse  and  other  animals, 
was  of  great  effect.    These  inventions  did  not  change  the  na- 
ture  of  the   individual  man,   and  probably   only  slowly  his 
methods  of  thought  and  his  beliefs;  but  they  had  their  effect 
in  bringing  about  the  greater  amalgamation  of  peoples,  with 
the  consequences  which  followed  from  that  social  cause.    They 
gave  man  a  new  environment,  and  one  that  he  has  slowly  learned 
to  shape  in  accord  with  his  intellectual  and  social  needs. 

5.  Not  less  important,  probably,  was  this  change  in  man's 
environment,  both  physical  and  spiritual.     The  fact  that  all 
the  early  civilizations  grew  up  in  river  valleys  or  in  localities 
open  to  the  sea  on  all  sides,  indicates  what  influence  was  thus 

[43] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

exerted.  A  change  in  social  environment  results  from  the 
invention  of  new  tools,  institutions,  and  processes  of  thought, 
thus  enlarging  the  scope  of  human  activities. 

6.  In  the  early  phases  of  tribal  life  land  and  all  kinds 
of  property,   except  individual  tools,  weapons  and   clothing, 
belonged  to  the  community.     All  economists   emphasize   the 
large  results  which  followed  on  the  evolution  of  individual 
property,  by  which  the  individual  was  enabled  to  accumulate 
for  his  own  advantage  and  that  of  his  family,  the  results  of 
his  labors.     The  less  promising  phase  of  this  evolution  was 
that  it  gave  the  power  of  aggrandizement  into  the  hands  of 
chiefs  and  kings,  and  that  it  aided  greatly  in  dividing  com- 
munities into  classes  and  castes,  on  the  basis  of  property  and 
the  power  it  gave,  and  not  on  the  basis  of  individual  merit. 

7.  Migration  must  be  regarded  as  a  considerable  cause  in 
the  liberation  of  the  social  mind  from  the  customary  and  tradi- 
tional, enabling  it  to  see  the  world  in  a  new  spirit. 

8.  Tribal  contacts  had  a  similar  effect  in  giving  an  en- 
largement to  the  range  of  conceptions  entertained,  enabling 
individuals  to  realize  that  their  own  traditions  do  not  mark 
the  limits  of  experience,  custom,  and  thought.     It  results  in 
the  borrowing  of  customs,  myths,  rituals,  and  inventions,  and 
in  the  coalescence  of  cultures. 

9.  To  the  same  effect  is  the  passing  of  products  of  skill 
over  wide  areas,  and  in  some  degree  the  circulation  of  customs, 
myths,  and  rituals  over  extended  regions. 

10.  War  distributes  more  or  less  widely  these  products 
of  culture,  and  brings  tribes  and  peoples  into  closer  contact. 
In  itself  it  always  makes  for  destruction,  but  in  its  throwing 
of  peoples  together,  and  in  thus  enabling  them  to  learn  of  the 
customs  and  arts  of  other  peoples,  its  influence  is  sometimes 
very  great,  especially  in  the  early  ages  of  civilization. 

[44] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF   RELIGION 

11.  In  the  same  way  slavery,  as  one  of  the  results  of  war 
and  conquest,  serves  as  a  means  of  widening  contacts  of  peo- 
ples, thus  leading  indirectly  to  progress.    The  captive  carries 
his  language,  his  religion,  his  crafts,  his  customs  to  those  by 
whom  he  is  enslaved,  and  in  that  manner  traditions  and  cul- 
tures are  passed  on  to  those  who  may  in  time  profit  by  them. 

12.  Probably  it  is  the  capture  of  women  which  has  the 
largest  influence  in  this  direction,  for  they  are  likely  to  change 
in  a  degree  the  ideas  and  beliefs  of  the  men  to  whom  they 
are  assigned  as  wives.     Especially,  if  many  women  from  the 
same  tribe  are  captured,  they  may  have  a  considerable  influ- 
ence on  the  traditions  of  the  tribe  into  which  they  are  intro- 
duced. 

13.  Economic  causes  are  not  to  be  ignored,  since  these 
operate  to  widen  the  industrial  activities  of  a  people.     The 
advance  in  methods  of  transportation,  trading  of  tribe  with 
tribe  or  exchange  of  products,  commerce,  and  all  methods  of 
systematic  manufacture,  are  capable  of  greatly  enlarging  the 
tribal  life.    They  advance  the  interests  of  property,  facilitate 
a  better  food  supply,  give  better  habitations  and  clothing,  and 
serve  to  bring  peoples  into  closer  contact.     What  thus  facili- 
tates the  material  interests  of  a  people,  also  adds  to  the  range 
of  social  customs,  traditions,  and  religious  adaptations. 

14.  Many  of  these  processes  of  larger  adaptation  and  so- 
cial flexibility  may  be  described  as  the  results  of  social  in- 
vention.    They  are  not  of  the  nature  of  individual  discoveries 
or  inventions,  but  come  about  as  the  result  of  the  relations  of 
the  tribe  to  its  environment,  and  may  be  best  described,  per- 
haps, as  products  of  accident.    Of  this  nature,  it  may  be,  were 
the  discovery  that  seeds  may  be  placed  in  the  soil  and  produce 
a  supply  of  vegetables,  thus  leading  to  the  invention  of  agri- 
culture and  horticulture.    Of  the  same  nature  was  the  domesti- 

[45] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

cation  of  animals  and  the  making  of  them  serviceable  to  man. 
These  enlargements  of  the  tribal  life,  and  its  industrial  and 
social  opportunities,  were  not  of  the  nature  of  deliberate  in- 
ventions on  the  part  of  individuals,  but  products  of  the  con- 
tacts of  the  tribe  with  its  environment. 

15.  This  acceptance  of  the  process  of  social  invention  does 
not  mean  that  the  other  process  of  individual  invention  and 
discovery  is  to  be  ignored.    However,  this  does  not  appear  to 
any  but  the  most  feeble  extent  in  early  society.    In  clan  society 
the  power  of  tradition  and  social  custom  are  too  great  to  per- 
mit  of   any  but   the   most   limited   expression   of  individual 
genius.    Without  doubt  it  cannot  be  assumed  that  in  the  tribe 
all  individuals  were  equal  in  mental  capacity  or  in  originality 
of  mind.    At  a  later  stage,  however,  when  the  bonds  of  cus- 
tom and  tradition  had  in  some  degree  been  broken,  there  came 
an  opportunity  for  the  man  or  woman  of  genius  to  have  a 
hearing  and  to  get  his  fresh  ideas  recognized.    A  result  of  this 
liberation  of  the  individual  mind  was  a  much  more  rapid  ad- 
vance in  progress,  the  origin  of  new  institutions,  and  the  be- 
ginnings of  science,  philosophy  and  religious  ideas. 

16.  Then  came  the  ages  of  the  great  founders  in  culture, 
institutions,  and  religions.    These  men  were  not  wholly  original 
in  any  instance.     They  built  on  the  foundations  already  laid. 
To  no  small  extent  their  work  or  what  resulted  from  their 
activities,  was  of  a  syncretist  nature.     In  a  word,  their  origi- 
nality often  consisted  in  bringing  together  older  cultures  from 
perhaps  widely  extending  regions,  and  giving  in  this  way  new 
impulses  and  creative  resources  to  the  communities  which  they 
influenced.    This  does  not  mean  that  personal  genius  is  to  be 
ignored,  for  it  is  a  great  factor  in  all  phases  of  the  world's 
progress. 

[46] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF   RELIGION 

17.  The  bringing  to  birth  of  new  cultures  and  institutions, 
however  they  may  originate,  facilitates  mental  activity  and 
broadens  the  outlook  of  men  upon  the  world.    This  is  seen  in 
the  sometimes  great  rapidity  with  which  a  people  advances  in 
all  directions  when  it  comes  in  contact  with  a  new  form  of 
civilization,  as  in  the  instance  of  the  Japanese  as  the  result 
of  the  opening  of  their  ports  to  the  world.     In  their  mental 
capacities  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  any  essential  change 
has  taken  place;  but  cultural  contacts  have  awakened  fresh 
motives,  incentives  and  energies. 

18.  This  process  may  be  described  as  one  of  mental  re- 
lease from  the  thralldom  of  custom  and  tradition,  leading  to 
the  rapid  formation  of  new  habits  of  mind  and  fresh  concep- 
tions of  the  world  and  human  interests.     The  same  kind  of 
liberation  is  taking  place  at  the  present  time  in  India,  but 
more  slowly,  and  on  the  part  of  individuals  or  groups,  rather 
than  on  the  part  of  the  whole  population.    It  cannot  be  said, 
however,  that  all  the  Japanese  people  were  made  free  by  Eu- 
ropean contacts,  but  it  was  rather  the  samurai  than  the  peo- 
ple as  a  whole.    This  process  of  liberation  has  been  described 
as  mental  or  psychological,  a  change  in  the  attitude  of  the 
mind,  rather  than  any  progress  in  industrial,   economic,   or 
commercial  interests.    Breaking  the  bonds  of  custom  and  tradi- 
tion, it  frees  the  mind  for  rapid  enlargement  of  social  and  in- 
tellectual processes. 

19.  This  process  of  liberation  has  been  greatly  facilitated 
by  the  methods  of  science.    We  cannot  say  that  man  has  ever 
been  wholly  free  from  the  exercise  of  that  spirit,  for  even  in 
the  age  of  magic  it  was  present  in  a  desire  to  know  and  to 
control  the  processes  of  nature.    It  is  true,  however,  that  the 
methods  of  science  were  of  late  appearance,  and  that  it  was 
only  within  the  limits  of  the  greater  civilizations  that  it  found 

[47] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF   RELIGION 

opportunity  to  manifest  itself.  At  an  early  time  the  study  of 
the  heavens  began,  then  mathematics  had  a  considerable  devel- 
opment, and  the  spirit  of  free  inquiry  into  the  laws  of  the 
natural  world  had  a  striking  expression  in  Greece.  With 
modern  times  science  has  come  more  and  more  to  supersede  all 
other  interpretations  of  the  universe  in  all  its  phases. 

20.  Also  in  the  modern  world  the  contact  of  ideas — the 
wide  range  of  culture  processes — has  had  the  effect  of  awaken- 
ing thought,  arousing  the  individual  mind,  and  stimulating 
the  untrammelled  acceptance  of  whatever  truths  may  come  to 
hand. 

21.  These  tendencies  also  result  in  the  growth  of  tolera- 
tion and  the  spirit  of  free  inquiry.    At  the  same  time  there  is 
aroused  a  desire  to  test  all  traditions  and  past  ideas,  to  in- 
vestigate all  old  theories  of  the  universe,  and  to  be  satisfied 
with  nothing  that   cannot  be  reasonably  proven  to   have   a 
sound  basis  in  fundamental  truth. 

22.  The  growth  of  the  critical  spirit  is  also  of  great  im- 
portance, since  it  leads  to  an  attitude  of  suspicion  of  what  is 
antique  and  has  merely  a  basis  in  tradition.     The  traditional 
attitude  is  that  of  the  implicit  acceptance  of  what  is  handed 
down  from  the  past,  with  all  its  credulities,  and  its  belief 
in  miracles  and  the  supernatural.     On  the  other  hand,  the 
critical  spirit  questions  these,  and  will  not  accept  them  until 
they  answer  to  the  sound  results  of  the  scientific  method  of 
inquiry  by  investigation  and  hypotheses. 

23.  Freedom  of  inquiry,  right  to  think  in  an  untrammelled 
manner,  and  to  express  fearlessly  what  is  thought,  is  one  of  the 
most  important  of  the  later  phases  of  progress. 

24.  A  belief  in  progress,  a  confidence  that  man  is  capable 
of  going  forward  and  is  making  advance,  marks  the  modern 
in  contrast  with   the   ancient  world.     Ancient   thought  was 

[48] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OP   RELIGION 

largely  dominated  by  the  idea  that  in  the  past  man  had  been 
better,  nobler,  and  happier  than  in  the  present,  and  that  he  had 
fallen  from  conditions  of  perfection  in  a  golden  age.  Modern 
thought,  on  the  contrary,  is  characterized  by  the  conviction 
that  man  is  making  a  more  or  less  steady  advance,  that  pro- 
gress can  be  determined  and  controlled  by  mankind,  and  that 
the  true  destiny  of  the  race  is  to  be  worked  out  in  the  future. 

25.  One  of  the  most  highly  important  of  all  causes  making 
for  progress  has  been  the  profiting  by  the  great  traditions  of 
the  race  in  the  form  of  education  and  culture.     In  the  past 
education  has  been  limited  to  the  few;  now  it  is  gradually 
spreading  to  all  persons  of  every  class  and  condition.    A  great 
step  forward  will  be  taken  when  it  is  possible  for  every  child 
and  youth  to  secure  a  thorough  training,  thus  profiting  fully 
by  what  the  race  has  experienced,  discovered  and  invented; 
and  is  able  to  know  and  profit  by  history,  art,  science,  and  all 
the  causes  in  the  past  that  have  led  to  human  progress. 

26.  The  increasing  size  of  social  and  political  combina- 
tions has  undoubtedly  had  a  large  influence  in  securing  that 
mental  expansion  we  designate  as  progress.     The  food-group 
consisted  of  a  score  or  two  of  persons,  the  tribe  brought  to- 
gether a  few  hundreds  or  thousands,  while  the  state  gathered 
to  itself  hundreds  of  thousands  or  millions.    Mere  numbers  do 
not  necessarily  facilitate  political  progress,  but  growth  in  size 
means  a  greater  variety  of  contacts,  an  increase  in  diversity  of 
occupations,  a  broader  range  of  traditions,  an  enlarging  mental 
outlook,  and  a  great  increase  in  facilities  for  co-operation  on 
the  part  of  individuals  and  groups. 

27.  The  increase  in  the  size  of  a  community  has  meant 
that  there  has  been  secured  a  more  efficient  measure  of  com- 
bination.   A  large  range  of  contacts,  a  more  effective  extension 
of  the  division  of  labor,  added  facilities  for  exchange  and  for 

[49] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

commerce,  a  deepening  and  enlarging  spirit  of  loyalty  and 
patriotism,  and  a  broader  perspective  view  of  life  in  all  its 
phases,  have  been  secured  by  the  growth  in  size  of  the  political 
group. 

28.  The  ethical  life  has  grown  with  the  growth  in  political 
combination.    The  early  groups  were  clannish,  intolerant  and 
exclusive.     As  the  tribe  has  expanded  into  the   great  state 
ethical  principles  and  the  practice  of  morality  have  become 
less  traditional,  more  rational,  and  better  fitted  to  secure  a 
more  social  and  juster  life.    In  their  turn,  the  acceptance  of 
broadening  principles  of  justice  and  humanity  have  facilitated 
the  inner  growth  of  states  in  the  direction  of  greater  stability 
and  a  right  regard  to  the  welfare  of  all  their  members. 

29.  The  destruction  of  the  spirit  of  autocracy,  the  divine 
rights  of  rulers,  the  theory  that  some  individuals  and  classes 
are  born  to  rule  others,  the  breaking  of  the  bonds  of  slavery, 
feudal  control  and  the  power  of  wealth,  the  crushing  of  des- 
potism in  all  its  forms  have  largely  promoted  the  growth  of 
freedom  and  democracy.    The  rights  of  man,  the  demand  for 
individual  liberty,  may  be  often  sentimental  in  their  expression, 
and  with  too  little  conception  of  what  they  mean;  but  there 
can  be  no  question  that  they  afford  incentives  to  mental  ad- 
vance, ethical  probity  and  political  synthesis. 

30.  Great  and  stimulating  ideas  in  all  the  higher  reaches 
of  civilization  have  had  a  large  and  growing  power  of  expan- 
sion.   In  the  modern  world  democracy  was  an  idea  incapable 
of  practical  application,  though  the  attempt  was  many  times 
made,  until  it  found  its  opportunity  in  the  last  years  of  the 
eighteenth  century  on  a  narrow  coastline  on  the  western  side 
of  the  Atlantic.    In  Europe  many  an  effort  was  made  to  imitate 
this  new  form  of  state,  but  they  were  always  ruthlessly  sup- 
pressed.   After  more  than  a  century  this  struggling  idea  ap- 

[50] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF   RELIGION 

pears  to  have  conquered  the  world,  and  now  democracies 
arise  on  every  hand.  No  longer  are  autocracy  and  armed 
force  capable  of  suppressing  these  demands  of  the  people  to 
rule  themselves.  The  growth  of  the  democratic  demand,  and 
the  attempts  to  make  the  rights  of  the  people  more  secure 
and  ampler,  indicate  the  vast  evolutionary  power  there  is  in 
such  an  idea.  The  rights  of  women,  the  pleas  for  industrial 
democracy,  the  desire  for  truly  universal  facilities  for  educa- 
tion, though  not  welcomed  by  conservatives  and  reactionaries, 
have  in  them  an  expanding  power  which  insures  their  final 
success. 


[51] 


CHAPTER  II 

The  Creative  Genius  of  Social  Man 

THE  new  science  of  Comparative  Religion  seeks  to  investi- 
gate, in  a  spirit  of  free  inquiry,  all  the  religions  of  the 
world,  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest.  What  it  aims  at  is  an 
ample  knowledge  of  the  various  phases  of  religious  development, 
desiring  only  to  know  the  truth  in  regard  to  them.  Not  only 
does  it  assume  that  religion  is  universal,  and  that  all  religions 
are  fundamentally  the  same  in  motive,  and  in  their  primary 
answer  to  human  needs ;  but  it  regards  religion,  wherever  mani- 
fest, as  an  expression  of  the  creative  power  of  social  man.  What- 
ever else  religion  may  be,  it  is  human,  and  it  is  an  outgrowth 
of  human  desires  and  aspirations. 

Religion  everywhere  is  influenced  by  the  environing  con- 
ditions of  human  life.  The  social  and  political  forms  of  organi- 
zation have  an  influence  in  shaping  its  external  manifestations. 
Whether  men  are  hunters,  herdsmen,  farmers,  or  devoted  to 
commerce  or  war,  has  a  perceptible  effect  in  giving  direction  to 
the  religious  demands  of  a  people.  The  ceremonials  and  the 
rituals  of  hunters  are  not  the  same  as  those  of  a  people  who  have 
advanced  to  the  cultivation  of  the  soil.  Tribes  who  live  in 
mountain  regions  always  vary  somewhat  in  their  religion  from 
those  who  live  on  the  seashore,  even  though  they  accept  the  same 
historic  faith. 

The  evidence  does  not  justify  the  conclusion  that  religion 
has  its  origin  in  the  conditions  of  the  physical  environment  or 
that  it  grows  wholly  out  of  awe,  fear  or  any  similar  attitude 

[52] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF   RELIGION 

with  reference  to  the  phenomena  of  nature.  We  may  find  abun- 
dant evidence  that  religion  is  influenced  by  industrial  and 
economic  conditions,  but  it  cannot  be  assumed  that  these  are 
the  causing  agents  bringing  it  into  existence.  The  great  reli- 
gions have  not  arisen  accidentally,  under  any  and  every  condi- 
tion, in  any  and  every  region ;  but  only  after  long  preparation 
for  them,  and  under  the  conditions  of  a  comparatively  high 
civilization.  This  means  that  religions  of  the  higher  type  have 
not  been  solely  due  to  individual  genius  or  that  they  have  had 
their  origin  alone  in  personal  initiative. 

The  religion  of  a  people  is  to  be  measured  by  the  degree  of 
its  social  advancement.  The  same  religion  varies  greatly  ac- 
cording to  the  political  and  industrial  activities  of  those  who 
accept  it.  Some  of  the  tribes  in  east  Central  Africa  have  become 
Christians,  and  are  devoted  to  the  faith  that  has  come  to  them 
with  the  aid  of  missionaries.  It  cannot  be  claimed  that  their 
Christianity  is  in  every  particular  the  same  as  that  of  the  most 
advanced  peoples  of  Europe  or  America.  Some  of  the  western 
Eskimos  have  also  been  converted  to  Christianity,  but  their  new 
religion  is  not  a  duplication  of  that  of  the  African  tribes  or  that 
of  Great  Britain.  All  the  more  certain  is  it  that  those  peoples 
which  have  retained  their  aboriginal  religions  vary  in  regard 
to  them  with  the  varying  conditions  of  their  habitat,  the  man- 
ner of  their  securing  a  food  supply,  and  the  stage  they  have 
reached  in  their  culture  development. 

What  men  believe  in  regard  to  God  and  the  future  life 
will  vary  in  large  degree  with  reference  to  the  forms  of  their 
social  institutions.  In  the  kinship  clan  and  tribe  the  gods  are 
friendly,  for  the  most  part,  and  are  regarded  as  of  the  same 
nature  as  those  who  worship  them.  Where  there  is  an  auto- 
cratic chief  the  god  will  be  accepted  as  of  the  same  nature  as 
their  ruler.  Especially  is  this  true  where  a  people  has  developed 

[53] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

a  political  form  of  institutions  admitting  of  kingly  rule  and 
power.  As  is  the  king  so  is  the  god,  an  autocrat  if  he  wields 
autocratic  power,  a  kindly  sovereign  if  he  rules  with  leniency 
and  regard  to  the  welfare  of  his  subjects.  When  the  king  rules 
despotically  it  is  more  certain  that  the  god  is  defined  as  a  great 
autocrat  whose  will  is  absolute. 

Such  comparisons  may  not  be  pressed  too  far,  but  it  is 
probable  that  they  are  not  without  their  suggestiveness  with 
regard  to  the  ideas  men  have  of  the  gods  they  worship.  We 
see  this  process  of  theological  modification  going  on  about  us 
at  the  present  time,  and  it  shows  how  intimately  the  ideas  en- 
tertained in  any  age  reflect  the  human  institutions  out  of  which 
they  develop.  The  theologians  of  the  eighteenth  century  insisted 
upon  the  sovereignty  and  the  supremacy  of  God.  At  the  pres- 
ent day  we  hear  on  every  hand  of  the  immanence  of  God.  What 
is  this  but  a  result  of  the  changes  which  have  taken  place  in 
the  political  institutions  of  America!  We  have  passed  from 
under  the  rule  of  an  autocratic  king,  from  social  and  political 
institutions  that  were  aristocratic  and  despotic  to  those  which 
are  democratic,  and  based  on  conceptions  of  personal  freedom. 
Has  not  our  religion  made  a  like  change,  the  political  revolu- 
tion leading  to  that  in  religion? 


No  attempt  can  be  made  here  to  follow  out  these  sugges- 
tions in  all  their  details  or  with  the  presentation  of  the  great 
number  of  illustrations  which  might  be  brought  forward  in  order 
to  sustain  them.  What  we  are  to  recognize  is,  that  in  all  the 
earlier  ages  of  the  world  religion  is  intimately  bound  up  with 
every  other  phase  of  a  people's  life,  whether  it  be  a  hunting 
band,  a  kinship  tribe,  a  city-state  or  a  great  feudal  nation.  In 

[54] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  EELIGION 

the  periods  of  the  primitive  peoples,  which  we  are  now  more 
especially  studying,  the  various  phases  of  human  development 
are  not  separated  from  each  other  as  they  have  become  in  mod- 
ern times.  Now  we  hear  of  art  for  art's  sake,  and  in  the  same 
manner  of  many  other  phases  of  our  lives.  No  one  in  this 
country  thinks  of  identifying  politics  and  religion.  In  the 
primitive  ages  this  differentiation  had  not  yet  been  made,  and 
there  was  no  distinct  division  between  politics,  art  and  religion. 
It  is  not  in  any  degree  to  exaggerate  to  say  that  religion  in 
primitive  society  permeates  the  whole  of  life.  No  phase  of 
human  expression  has  been  distinctly  withdrawn  from  the  sway 
of  religion,  and  religion  appears  on  all  occasions,  in  all  the  events 
of  life. 

In  his  book  on  The  Delphic  Oracle :  Its  Early  History,  In- 
fluence and  Fall,  T.  Dempsey  says  of  the  relations  of  Greek  re- 
ligion and  politics:  "The  history  of  ancient  Greece  shows  a 
remarkable  closeness  of  relations  between  politics  and  religion 
—  a  closeness  that  is  somewhat  surprising  to  the  modern  world, 
which  so  often  see  separation,  or  even  overt  hostility,  between 
church  and  state.  To  the  mind  of  the  Greek  such  hostility  of 
the  state  towards  religion  would  be  a  piece  of  insolent  pride  and 
folly,  which  was  sure  to  call  down  the  nemesis  of  heaven.  For 
the  success  alike  of  the  state  and  the  individual  the  good-will 
of  the  gods  was  essential :  no  institution  could  flourish,  no  pro- 
ject be  successful,  for  which  there  was  not  the  divine  sanction. " 

This  is  but  another  way  of  saying  that  the  early  religions 
are  social,  and  have  their  origin  and  sanctions  in  the  life  of  the 
community,  whatever  its  distinctive  form.  In  such  a  com- 
munity there  was  no  personal  freedom,  no  opportunity  for  the 
individual  to  think  independently.  The  clan  was  supreme,  and 
its  will  was  alone  effective  in  guiding  the  lives  of  men  and 
women.  Singular  as  it  may  seem,  from  our  point  of  view, 

[55] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

there  was  in  such  a  community  nothing  that  may  be  called 
individual  development,  no  personality  expressing  itself  in 
independent  methods  of  culture.  What  the  clan  did  the  indi- 
vidual followed  without  doubt  or  hesitation.  The  manner  of 
conduct  prescribed  by  the  clan  was  that  unhesitatingly  accepted 
by  all  its  members.  The  religion  of  the  clan  was  the  religion 
of  every  one  of  its  members ;  and  within  its  fellowship  there  was 
no  dissent,  no  heretics,  no  skeptics. 

We  find  this  sovereignty  of  the  group  or  clan  or  community, 
whichever  we  may  prefer  to  call  it,  developed  to  such  an  extent 
that  in  it  we  may  find  what  may  be  regarded  as  a  group-mind 
or  a  collective  soul.  The  ability  had  not  yet  been  developed 
for  independent  thinking  or,  it  may  be  said,  that  the  group  so 
far  obsesses  the  individual  that  he  follows  unquestioningly  its 
dictation.  Thinking  is  done  by  the  mass,  as  it  were,  and  is  not 
individualistic  in  its  nature.  Many  evidences  are  to  be  found 
favoring  this  conclusion,  since  all  forms  of  human  expression 
within  the  group  take  on  one  form,  are  shaped  to  one  end,  have 
one  emotional  type.  What  one  thinks  or  believes  all  think  and 
believe,  and  what  the  mass  holds  to  masters  every  person  within 
the  group.  While  it  is  true  that  the  germs  of  individual  think- 
ing are  latent  in  any  such  group,  there  may  come  in  time 
manifestations  of  personal  opinion  and  revolt  against  estab- 
lished or  group  thinking;  but  these  have  as  yet  in  no  distinctive 
form  asserted  themselves. 

If  we  are  not  disposed  to  accept  the  idea  of  a  group  mind 
or  a  collective  soul  we  may  call  that  which  these  phrases  attempt 
to  express  by  the  term  collective  mentality.  A  statement  of 
this  conception  of  mind  may  be  found  in  Daniel  G.  Brin  ton's 
The  Basis  of  Social  Relations,  where,  in  his  study  of  the  ethnic 
mind  as  seen  in  the  individual  and  the  group,  he  says:  "The 
closer  we  study  the  individual,  the  more  do  his  alleged  individ- 

[56] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF   RELIGION 

ualities  cease,  as  such,  and  disappear  in  the  general  laws  by 
virtue  of  which  society  exists;  the  less  baggage  does  he  prove 
to  have  which  is  really  his  own;  the  more  do  all  his  thoughts, 
traits,  and  features  turn  out  to  be  those  of  others;  so  that, 
at  last  he  melts  into  the  mass,  and  there  is  nothing  left  which 
he  has  a  right  to  claim  as  his  personal  property.  His  pre- 
tended personal  mind  is  the  reflex  of  the  group-minds  around 
him,  as  his  body  is  in  every  fibre  and  cell  the  repetition  of  his 
species  and  race." 

If  such  a  statement  can  be  made  of  the  society  of  to-day, 
with  all  its  assertion  of  personal  freedom  and  democracy,  all 
the  more  emphatically  might  it  have  been  made  of  the  primitive 
group,  whatever  the  particular  form  it  may  take.  Turning  to 
that  chapter  of  Emile  Durkheim's  The  Elementary  Forms  of 
the  Religious  Life,  (Les  Formes  elementaires  de  la  vie  re- 
ligieuse,)  wherein  he  treats  of  the  idea  of  the  soul,  we  find 
him  saying  that  "the  individual  soul  is  only  a  portion  of  the 
collective  soul  of  the  group;  it  is  the  anonymous  force  at  the 
basis  of  the  cult ;  but  incarnated  in  an  individual  whose  person- 
ality it  espouses. "  Again,  in  the  chapter  on  the  elements  of 
sacrifice,  he  declares  that  "the  individual  gets  from  society 
the  best  part  of  himself,  all  that  gives  him  a  distinct  character 
and  a  special  place  among  other  beings,  his  intellectual  and 
moral  culture.  If  we  should  withdraw  from  men  their  language, 
sciences,  arts  and  moral  beliefs,  they  would  drop  to  the  rank  of 
animals.  So  the  characteristic  attributes  of  human  nature  come 
from  society." 

The  theory  that  there  is  a  collective  mind  has  been  ac- 
cepted by  too  many  of  the  ablest  psychologists  to  make  it  pos- 
sible to  reject  it  without  a  careful  inquiry  into  the  reasons  for 
its  acceptance.  The  objection  that  there  is  no  organism  through 
which  the  social  mind  can  express  itself  does  not  carry  convic- 

[57] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

tion  to  those  who  recognize  to  the  full  the  nature  of  the  primi- 
tive group,  and  the  extent  to  which  all  its  members  think  to 
one  purpose  and  in  an  identical  manner.  When  we  give  con- 
sideration to  the  nature  of  personality  as  defined  in  the  first 
chapter,  it  no  longer  appears  impossible  that  the  same  mental 
processes  may  operate  in  a  social  group,  with  the  result  of 
bringing  about  what  is  a  complete  unity  of  thought  and  ac- 
tion. It  may  be  questioned  if  the  very  nature  of  the  individual 
mind,  the  manner  in  which  it  acquires  its  ideas,  does  not  com- 
pel us  to  accept  the  unity  of  the  social  group  as  regards  the 
processes  of  intellection,  as  well  as  the  processes  of  emotional 
expression. 

"What  we  are  to  seek  for,  then,  are  the  evidences  that  in 
the  primitive  group  there  is  such  a  degree  of  common  or  collective 
emotion,  and  action,  and  thought,  that  inevitably  there  is  the 
most  harmonious  unity  of  purpose,  justifying  the  theory  of 
a  collective  mind  or  common  social  center  of  activity.  It  is 
certain  that  we  do  not  find  in  such  a  group  any  distinctly  in- 
dividual aims  or  desires,  any  demand  for  individual  action  or 
thought.  The  group  acts  as  if  it  were  one  person,  though  its 
members  retain  their  individuality  to  the  fullest  extent,  as  de- 
fined in  the  first  chapter.  Without  doubt  the  individual  or- 
ganism has  its  separate  existence  and  functions,  that  it  lives 
wholly  within  itself  as  a  distinct  organic  entity,  derived  from 
its  ancestors  by  the  process  of  congenital  heredity.  Equally 
without  doubt,  it  would  appear,  is  the  fact  that  the  mind  acts 
collectively,  in  the  sense  that  its  contents,  what  makes  up  its 
personality  and  its  knowledge,  its  motives  and  its  ideas,  are 
the  result  of  there  being  transmitted  to  it,  in  the  whole  of  the 
process  of  training  and  education,  such  results  of  human  ex- 
perience as  have  been  acquired  by  the  group  throughout  its 
whole  past. 

[58] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

II 

Turning  now  to  the  evidence  which  justifies  the  conclu- 
sion that  the  primitive  group  is  in  the  largest  degree  a  col- 
lectivity with  a  life  and  mentality  of  its  own,  we  are  impressed, 
as  a  result  of  any  extended  study  of  such  groups,  with  the 
fact  of  their  creative  power.  This  is  one  of  the  strongest  evi- 
dences in  favor  of  the  conclusion  that  there  is  a  collective 
mind.  The  primitive  group  not  only  has  life  of  its  own,  but  it 
acts  and  thinks  and  creates  in  a  manner  distinctive  from  that 
of  other  groups.  In  this  respect  it  has  many  of  the  character- 
istics of  an  individual,  who  elaborates  his  own  opinions  and 
beliefs  from  the  materials  which  are  given  him  in  the  process 
of  his  education,  meaning  by  that  word  all  which  he  acquires 
from  society  in  any  of  its  manifestations. 

The  group  creates,  not  only  through  its  individuals,  but 
as  a  collectivity,  as  the  result  of  its  communal  activities,  emo- 
tions, thoughts  and  powers  of  imagination.  Ribot,  in  his  work 
on  the  Creative  Imagination,  says  that  the  era  of  the  primitive 
man  is  for  the  imagination  its  golden  age,  and  that  it  reaches 
its  full  bloom  in  the  creation  of  myths.  He  says  that  before 
man  attains  to  civilization  he  is  a  purely  imaginative  being, 
and  that  the  imagination  is  able  to  exercise  its  powers  to  the 
largest  possible  extent  because  it  does  not  encounter  traditions 
and  restraining  ideas  or  beliefs.  The  ground  it  occupies  is 
not  already  preempted  by  those  who  have  gone  before,  and 
the  mind  is  therefore  free  to  work  unhindered  and  unrestrained. 
Too  much  emphasis  must  not  be  placed  on  this  conclusion,  for 
the  absence  of  tradition,  and  established  convictions  of  any 
kind,  result  of  previous  human  experience,  forbids  the  training 
and  discipline  of  the  mind,  and  allows  of  its  running  wild,  and 
rioting  through  regions  hitherto  unexplored.  In  fact,  no 
human  group  shows  the  absence  of  tradition. 

[59] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

The  mind  of  the  primitive  man  as  we  know  him  to-day  is 
not  free,  but  bound  in  fetters  of  custom  and  ritual  and  social 
routine.  He  accepts  what  his  social  group  offers  him  with  the 
utmost  confidence,  and  does  not  seek  to  modify  it  or  only  in  the 
slightest  degree.  Probably  it  can  be  said,  however,  that  though 
he  is  thus  bound  as  an  individual,  he  is  freer  in  his  group  life, 
in  the  sense  that  the  collective  imagination  is  at  work  in  the 
borrowing,  or  in  the  creation  of,  new  myths  or  larger  inter- 
pretations of  the  world  about  him,  and  the  realities  of  his  own 
inward  life.  Backward  and  stagnant  as  some  such  peoples  ap- 
pear to  be,  as,  for  instance  the  aborigines  of  Australia,  there  is 
no  evidence  that  they  have  not  acquired  the  power  of  creation. 

The  creative  mentality  of  man,  working  collectively,  begins 
in  directions  that  can  be  regarded  as  quite  similar  to  the  early 
mental  activities  of  children.  When  the  child,  using  his  imag- 
ination unrestrained  by  previous  teachings  of  adults,  attempts 
to  explain  what  he  sees  and  hears  about  him,  he  gives  to  every 
event  a  personal  character.  That  is,  what  he  observes  he  de- 
scribes as  the  result  of  the  actions  of  individuals,  not  as  the 
result  of  material  or  cosmic  processes.  When  it  rains,  he  says 
that  it  is  some  one  in  the  sky  emptying  his  watering-pot.  When 
it  thunders,  he  describes  it  as  God  beating  on  the  floor  of  heaven. 
In  the  same  manner  the  primitive,  being  a  child  in  mentality, 
and  having  no  parent  or  teacher  to  modernize  his  conceptions, 
reaches  essentially  the  same  conclusions  as  the  child  of  to-day 
before  he  had  been  taught;  and  he  personalizes  all  phenomena, 
or  attributes  them  to  the  action  of  an  individual  of  the  same 
nature  as  he  is  himself.  This  personification  of  phenomena 
leads  to  the  creation  of  myths.  A  myth  describes  the  adven- 
tures of  a  superhuman  being,  who  is  the  agent  producing  what 
the  primitive  finds  in  himself  or  in  the  world  of  nature.  As 

[60] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF   RELIGION 

concerns  the  primitive  man,  at  least,  all  phenomena  ascribed  to 
the  action  of  gigantic  persons  are  of  the  nature  of  myths. 


Ill 

Physiological  demands  call  for  rhythmical  or  measured  ex- 
pression. The  nature  of  such  expression,  and  of  its  interpreta- 
tion has  been  much  discussed  by  scientists;  but  need  not  cause 
us  to  pause  for  their  consideration.  It  suffices  our  purpose  to 
recognize  the  fact  that  the  earliest  of  the  arts  to  which  early 
man  gave  his  attention  was  that  of  the  dance,  and  in  connection 
with  religion  to  a  large  extent.  Even  in  our  own  time  and 
country  the  Shakers  dance  to  the  Glory  of  God,  and  we  may  re- 
call that  the  Hebrews  worshipped  their  God  in  the  same  manner. 

The  dance  secures  unity  of  expression  in  the  social  group, 
responds  to  the  demand  for  rhythmical  action,  and  insures  a 
pleasant  excitement  to  the  nervous  system.  When  carried  to 
the  height  of  its  activity,  it  results  in  a  species  of  mental  intoxi- 
cation, and  may  lead  to  a  high  degree  of  excitement,  to  feelings 
of  ecstacy,  and  to  a  kind  of  inspiration.  The  heightening  of 
mental  action  may  be  accepted  by  the  primitive  man  as  the 
result  of  the  presence  of  some  spiritual  being  in  the  movement 
of  the  dance,  especially  when  it  is  the  manifestation  of  the 
group  emotion,  as  is  very  nearly  always  the  case.  This  spiritual 
exaltation  immediately  results  in  the  acceptance  of  the  dance 
as  a  means  of  securing  to  the  members  of  the  group  the  excite- 
ment and  the  emotions  which  are  distinctly  religious  in  their 
nature. 

We  have  already  indicated  that  no  one  manifestation  of  the 
religious  nature  of  the  primitive  man  stands  by  itself.  Because 
his  religion  is  a  group  religion,  and  all  his  life  is  under  reli- 
gious sanctions  for  that  reason,  when  he  dances,  he  also  sings 

[61] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

or  he  makes  use  of  some  kind  of  rhythmical  noise  which  has  the 
effect  of  giving  unity  or  harmony  to  the  group  activity  in  the 
dance.  The  women  of  some  of  the  tribes  of  Australia  beat  on 
their  opossum-skin  rugs  with  their  hands,  and  in  that  manner 
secure  for  the  dancers  the  necessary  rhythm  of  movement.  In 
Africa  the  drum  is  used  for  the  same  purpose ;  and  in  different 
parts  of  the  world  a  considerable  variety  of  crude  instruments 
are  brought  into  use. 

In  some  instances  a  soloist  furnishes  the  time-beat  by  means 
of  song;  or  it  may  be  that  a  group  of  singers  serve  the  same 
purpose.  At  a  somewhat  higher  stage  in  musical  development 
a  soloist  and  a  chorus  alternate  in  furnishing  the  music  for  the 
dances,  especially  if  some  degree  of  dramatic  skill  has  been 
developed  in  connection  with  them.  Even  before  this  step  has 
been  taken  there  is  a  considerable  advance  beyond  the  time-beat 
as  securing  harmony  to  the  movements  of  the  dancers ;  and  the 
dances  become  in  a  degree  dramatic.  A  number  of  men,  it  may 
be,  when  they  are  dancing,  will  act  out  the  scenes  of  a  hunt, 
some  of  them  representing  the  animals  hunted,  and  others  the 
hunters.  Those  who  have  witnessed  these  dances  ascribe  to 
them  great  realism,  and  a  remarkable  degree  of  dramatic  power. 
Then  again,  a  fight  between  individuals  or  a  group  of  warriors 
will  take  the  place  of  the  hunting  scene.  It  may  be,  in  some 
instances,  that  love  between  the  sexes  will  be  the  theme,  though 
this  is  usually  in  the  form  of  a  contest  between  two  men  for  the 
possession  of  a  woman. 

These  dances,  as  thus  described,  may  seem  to  be  of  a  purely 
secular  nature,  and  to  have  no  real  connection  with  religion. 
Very  nearly  all  of  them,  however,  are  enacted  in  connection 
with  some  religious  festival,  at  the  initiation  of  youth,  or  as 
having,  in  themselves,  the  purpose  to  excite  religious  emotions. 
At  this  period  it  is  impossible  to  separate  religion  from  any 

[62] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

form  of  the  daily  life,  the  distinction  has  not  yet  been  made 
between  what  is  natural  and  what  is  divine,  and  no  line  is 
drawn  between  the  sacred  and  the  secular.  All  is  sacred  or 
has  an  underlying  relation  to  the  purposes  which  may  be  de- 
fined as  religious. 

At  a  somewhat  later  stage,  and  especially  after  the  arts 
of  grinding  grains  in  preparation  for  food  or  after  the  cultiva- 
tion of  the  soil  has  been  introduced,  song  appears  as  giving 
rhythm  and  social  unity  to  the  labors  of  the  toilers.  In  this 
manner  many  a  task  is  lightened,  and  many  a  dull  routine 
made  less  irksome,  by  means  of  social  harmony  secured  by  song. 
This  is  especially  true  of  women,  whose  tasks  are  nearly  always 
those  of  cultivation  and  the  preparation  of  grains  for  food. 
Here,  again,  song  seems  to  be  purely  secular,  as  it  may  be ;  but 
it  is  more  than  probable  that  it  has  an  underlying  religious 
reference.  The  earth  in  which  the  grain  grows,  the  soil  which 
is  turned  over  in  its  cultivation,  even  the  grain  itself,  whether 
it  be  wheat,  barley  or  maize,  is  of  a  divine  nature;  and  the  act 
of  its  cultivation  is  a  religious  one  almost  invariably.  Even 
the  vessel  the  woman  constructs  for  the  purposes  of  her  cooking, 
and  not  the  less  the  materials  out  of  which  she  constructs  it, 
are  divine  or  have  the  nature  of  spiritual  entities.  Religion, 
therefore,  is  never  absent  from  the  toils  of  the  primitive  man 
or  woman. 

The  songs  and  the  dramatic  representations  connected  with 
the  dances,  or  which  eventually  superseded  them,  were  invari- 
ably improvised  for  the  occasion.  This  means  that  they  were 
not  of  individual  composition,  but  were  collective  in  their  ori- 
gin. They  related,  it  may  be,  to  the  events  of  the  day,  to  the 
hunt  and  its  adventures,  to  the  grinding  of  the  grain  or  to  its 
cultivation;  and  as  the  dance  went  on  the  singers  described 
these,  sometimes  the  leader  represented  a  phase  of  the  Bcenes 

[63] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

enacted,  which  is  repeated  by  all  present  or  the  choms  gives  a 
response  to  the  words  of  the  leader.  Whatever  the  manner  in 
which  the  scenes  enacted  were  presented,  the  interpretation  of 
them,  as  well  as  the  accompanying  songs,  were  the  work  of  a 
collective  improvisation. 

It  may  be  said,  in  answer  to  this  statement,  that  the  songs 
came  from  a  leader  or  that  they  were  the  work  of  some  one  of 
the  members  of  the  group.  To  a  degree  this  was  true ;  but, 
nevertheless,  it  was  no  individual,  but  a  collective,  motive  which 
found  utterance,  and  which  held  the  group  as  in  the  grip  of 
one  common  emotion  and  purpose.  In  his  book  on  The  Begin- 
nings of  Poetry,  Francis  B.  Gummere  gives  numerous  illustra- 
tions of  the  communal  nature  of  all  primitive  art,  and  makes 
it  certain,  that  evidence  from  many  lands  can  prove  what  he 
calls  the  collective  origin  of  song  and  music  and  poetry.  These 
arts,  as  he  observes,  are  closely  linked  to  each  other  in  their 
communal  origination,  and  for  the  reason  that  the  social  group 
of  early  man  has  but  one  common  mind.  This  is  his  statement: 
1  'The  circle,  the  close  clasp,  the  rhythmic  consent  of  steps  and 
voices;  here  are  the  social  foundations  and  the  communal  be- 
ginnings of  art.  Then  comes  the  improvised  song,  springing, 
however,  from  these  communal  and  choral  conditions,  and  still 
referring  absolutely  to  present  interests  of  the  horde  as  a  whole. 
All  poetry  is  communal,  holding  fast  to  the  rhythm  of  consent 
as  to  the  one  sure  fact."  This  last  reference  is,  of  course,  to 
the  nature  of  primitive  poetry. 

IV 

Another  phase  of  the  communal  life  connected  with  reli- 
gion is  to  be  found  in  the  initiations  of  the  young  into  the  life 
of  the  tribe  or  other  social  group.  Such  ceremonies  are  to  be 

[64] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

found  in  almost  every  part  of  the  world  amongst  primitive  and 
barbarous  peoples.  They  are  of  a  serious  and  impressive  na- 
ture, emphatically  calculated  to  give  the  young  a  profound 
regard  for  the  tribal  customs  and  traditions.  As  a  rule,  these 
initiations  were  quite  different  for  the  boy  and  the  girl.  The 
girl,  at  the  age  of  puberty,  was  prepared  for  marriage  and 
motherhood,  often  by  means  of  seclusion,  fasting,  tasks  to  be 
accomplished,  and  duties  to  be  acquired  for  the  whole  conduct 
of  her  life.  For  her,  as  was  most  often  the  case,  these  ceremonies 
were  solitary,  and  calculated  to  impress  her  with  the  responsibi- 
lities she  was  to  assume  as  the  mother  of  the  new  generation. 

For  the  boys  the  initiation  was  prolonged,  severe,  and  cru- 
cial. It  often  included  mutilations,  rigid  fasting,  the  heroic 
endurance  of  pain,  and  subjection  to  the  will  of  the  older  men, 
who  conducted  these  ceremonies.  In  many  tribes  there  was  a 
most  impressive  enactment  of  the  death  of  the  youth,  and  finally 
his  resurrection  to  a  new  life  as  an  initiated  member  of  the 
tribe,  with  full  rights  in  its  fellowship.  What  the  boy  had  been 
taught  was  now  put  aside,  and  the  inner  secrets  of  the  tribal 
life  were  made  known  to  him.  He  had  been  taught,  it  may  be, 
that  the  turndun  or  bull-roarer  was  the  voice  of  a  god ;  but  now 
he  was  shown  its  real  nature,  and  how  its  distracting  music 
was  actually  produced.  He  had  been  taught  that  the  gods  or 
demons,  who  roved  through  the  village  on  certain  occasions 
were  actually  denizens  of  another  world,  who  had  come  forth 
to  punish  the  boys,  and  to  warn  the  women.  Now  he  had  the 
secret  revealed  to  him  that  these  supernatural  beings  were  men 
in  disguise,  perhaps  his  own  father  or  brother  or  neighbor. 

The  effect  of  these  initiations  was  to  teach  the  boy  most 
impressively,  and  in  a  manner  he  could  never  forget,  the  cus- 
toms and  the  traditions  of  his  tribe.  If  some  secrets  were  re- 
vealed that  might  seem  likely  to  turn  him  from  the  teachings 

[65] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

now  given  him,  the  effect  was  quite  otherwise,  for  he  became 
as  never  before  a  tribal  member,  with  an  absolute  faith  in  all 
its  commands,  and  in  its  requirements  of  whatever  kind.  We 
might  say  that  he  became  the  slave  of  the  traditions  and  cus- 
toms of  his  people ;  but  it  is  also  possible  to  say  that  he  was  now 
for  the  first  time  born  into  the  life  of  his  social  group,  and  came 
really  to  live  its  life,  to  feel  its  emotions,  and  to  think  its 
thoughts. 

The  ceremonies  connected  with  the  initiation  of  boys  into 
the  communal  life  were  usually  of  a  very  crude  nature;  but 
they  were  elaborate,  and  they  were  calculated  to  make  the 
deepest  possible  impression  on  the  mind  of  susceptible  youth. 
They  undoubtedly  served  as  a  cement  to  bind  together  with 
unbreakable  bonds  the  members  of  the  group.  Being  enacted 
at  an  age  when  the  mind  is  open  to  every  kind  of  mental  obses- 
sion, and  when  it  is  most  capable  of  receiving  an  indelible 
impression,  that  will  remain  unchanged  throughout  life,  the 
initiation  served  its  purpose  to  the  fullest  degree. 

The  initiated  members  of  a  social  group  became  a  band  of 
brothers,  closely  and  intimately  bound  to  each  other,  and  made 
as  it  were  kinsmen  by  ties  more  effective  than  those  of  birth. 
All  the  members  of  the  social  group,  it  is  true,  were  of  the  same 
blood,  as  a  rule,  and  bound  to  each  other  by  ties  of  consan- 
guinity; but  the  initiation  ceremonies  gave  a  more  enduring 
bond  of  affection  and  fellowship  to  all  the  initiates. 

When  the  group  had  progressed  socially  to  that  stage  when 
others  than  the  consanguinous  ties  were  those  found  throughout 
its  membership,  because  of  the  coming  into  it  of  those  not  of  the 
same  blood,  there  developed  what  are  known  as  secret  societies. 
These  may  exist  alongside  the  tribal  group  or  they  may  super- 
sede it,  when  that  form  of  organization  has  in  a  degree  lost  its 
power  to  hold  together  its  members.  In  all  parts  of  the  world 

[66] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

such  societies  may  be  found  amongst  primitive  peoples.  The 
members  are  initiated  by  impressive  and  solemn  rites,  and  by 
the  most  binding  oaths.  In  some  regions  these  societies  serve 
to  preserve  order  and  to  enforce  custom  or  law.  In  others  they 
degenerate  into  the  means  of  terrorizing  those  not  connected 
with  them  or  of  the  extortion  of  wealth  from  those  who  will  not 
yield  it  up  in  any  other  manner. 

In  many  regions,  and  especially  in  southern  and  eastern 
Asia,  are  to  ber  found  communal  houses,  the  homes  of  these  secret 
societies.  In  these  the  men  and  boys  may  live,  and  in  them  the 
communal  business  is  transacted  or  the  festivals  held.  The 
women  are  sometimes  excluded,  and  sometimes  they  are  ad- 
mitted; but  these  houses  are  more  especially  the  meeting-places 
of  the  men  of  the  communal  fellowship.  What  is  especially  to 
be  recognized  in  regard  to  them  is,  that  they  are  of  a  communal 
nature,  and  that  they  serve  the  purposes  of  the  collective  life 
of  a  group. 

Perhaps  as  growing  out  of  the  initiations,  or,  it  may  be, 
in  some  instances,  developing  from  the  secret  societies,  may  be 
found  what  are  usually  called  mysteries.  These  appear  widely  in 
the  higher  stages  of  savagery  and  in  the  barbarian  age.  They  are 
distinctly  of  a  religious  nature,  with  the  purpose  of  initiating 
those  who  accept  them  into  a  fellowship  that  is  spiritual,  that 
is,  into  a  condition  of  preparation  that  is  calculated  to  insure 
communion  with  the  gods  or  entrance  into  the  immortal  life. 
The  most  widely  known  of  these  mysteries  was  that  of  the  Eleu- 
sinia,  which  took  place  at  Eleusis,  twelve  miles  from  Athens. 
We  know  little  of  these  initiations,  for  the  reason  that  no  one 
dared  reveal  their  secrets.  At  first  confined  to  the  tribe  with 
whom  they  originated,  they  were  extended  to  the  citizens  of 
Athens,  and,  finally,  to  all  Greeks,  both  men  and  women.  Based 
on  a  reverence  for  nature,  and  the  recognition  of  the  earth  as  a 

[67] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  EELIGION 

great  creative  mother,  as  well  as  on  the  divinity  of  the  cereals 
on  which  the  Greeks  mainly  subsisted,  these  nature-deities,  with 
the  nature-symbolisms  connected  with  them,  came  to  have  an 
important  influence  on  Greek  religion.  "When  the  Olympian 
gods  had  lost  their  power,  and  their  persuasive  capacity  to  hold 
to  the  faith  the  more  cultivated  Greeks,  these  mysteries  drew 
all  hearts  and  minds.  They  gave  initiation  into  the  spiritual 
world,  and  they  made  the  worshipper  certain  of  a  continuous 
life  after  death. 

The  mysteries,  however,  were  by  no  means  confined  to 
Greece  or  to  the  more  highly  civilized  peoples  of  the  ancient 
world.  They  were  to  be  found  in  Egypt,  in  Syria,  and  widely 
elsewhere,  even  among  the  tribes  of  Africa  and  India.  "Wher- 
ever they  appeared,  they  had  a  social  and  political  significance, 
as  well  as  one  that  was  profoundly  religious. 

Primitive  religion  does  not  consist  in  beliefs,  but  in  acts, 
that  is,  in  rituals,  ceremonies  and  festivals.  What  it  teaches 
is  not  in  the  nature  of  a  creed,  but  largely  relates  to  conduct, 
to  the  enforcing  of  customs,  and  to  the  impressing  upon  the 
young  of  what  is  to  be  done.  To  a  large  degree  the  conduct 
inculcated  is  that  supposed  to  be  demanded  by  the  gods,  by  the 
ancestral  spirits  or  by  the  divine  heroes  of  the  tribe.  The  rituals 
present  this  form  of  conduct  in  the  shape  of  dramatic  presenta- 
tions of  the  acts  of  these  divine  ones;  and  the  worshipper  is 
supposed  to  imitate  the  customs  thus  brought  before  him. 

These  rituals  are  regarded  as  having  a  magical  effect,  in 
that  they  bring  the  worshipper  into  intimate  contact  and  sym- 
pathy with  those  worshipped  and  giving  control  over  them. 
Many  of  the  rituals  act  as  restoratives  of  health,  others  are  per- 
formed for  the  express  purpose  of  bringing  an  abundance  of 
animals  to  the  hunters  of  the  tribe,  or  a  rapid  growth  of  the 
seeds  which  have  been  placed  in  the  earth.  The  increase  of  the 

[68] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  EELIGION 

food-supply  is  one  of  the  most  desired  of  all  things  which  appeal 
to  the  primitive  man,  and  to  this  end,  above  all  else,  he  invokes 
the  higher  powers.  The  early  religions  are  abundantly  occupied 
with  this  interest  in  an  adequate  food-supply,  and  this  demand 
gives  a  considerable  measure  of  interest  in  plants  and  animals, 
which  hold  a  large  place  in  all  of  them,  with  few  exceptions. 

The  next  most  urgent  interest  of  the  primitive  man  is  sex, 
the  control  of  the  relations  of  men  and  women,  and  the  securing 
to  the  tribe  a  provision  for  its  continuity  through  the  birth  of 
children.  After  the  conditions  controlling  the  food-supply  have 
been  mastered,  sex  stands  out  very  largely  as  an  interest  of  the 
primitive  and  the  barbarian  man.  In  many  a  tribe  the  process 
of  creation  is  one  of  generation,  Father-Heaven  and  Mother- 
Earth  holding  a  very  large  place  in  many  a  religion  of  the 
early  times. 

The  causes  of  disease,  the  nature  of  death  and  what  follows 
after  it,  the  processes  of  birth  and  growth,  the  kind  of  conduct 
which  will  preserve  the  life  of  the  tribe,  the  interests  of  the  hunt 
and  of  war  —  these  are  always  present  to  the  primitive  man  as 
determining  his  relations  to  the  world  of  the  spirits  and  the 
gods.  His  religion  seeks  to  control  all  these  interests,  not  in 
any  manner  known  to  a  scientific  age,  but  by  the  aid  of  magic, 
by  sacrifices,  by  ritual  representations  of  what  is  desired,  and 
by  communal  appeals  to  the  powers  controlling  the  life  of  the 
group. 

This  brief  outline  of  the  nature  of  early  religion  will  indi- 
cate that  it  is  in  no  sense  individual  but  social.  Karely,  perhaps 
never,  does  the  primitive  man  seek  for  what  he  desires  of  the 
higher  powers  by  any  personal  appeal  or  act.  If  he  does  BO, 
some  interpreters  of  early  human  life,  for  instance,  J.  G.  Frazer 
in  The  Golden  Bough,  are  of  the  opinion  that  it  is  to  be  called 
magic  and  not  religion.  Frazer  says  that  magic  is  individual, 

[69] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

but  that  religion  is  social.  Other  students  are  of  the  opinion 
that  no  such  distinction  is  to  be  made,  that  in  the  earliest  periods 
there  is  no  true  differentiation  between  magic  and  religion, 
though  this  undoubtedly  comes  at  a  later  time.  Religion  is 
communal  in  the  very  nature  of  it,  for  the  reason  that  it  seeks 
the  interest,  not  of  an  individual  as  distinct  from  other  indi- 
viduals, but  that  which  will  equally  benefit  all  the  members  of 
the  group.  Food  for  one  means  food  for  all,  and  the  appeal  to 
the  creative  powers  is  in  behalf  of  the  clan  or  tribe  in  its  com- 
munal capacity.  All  the  land  which  forms  the  habitat  of  the 
tribe  belongs  to  the  group  in  its  tribal  capacities,  though  indi- 
viduals may  use  portions  of  it  in  behalf  of  their  families.  The 
law  is  that  all  such  land  reverts  to  the  tribe  as  soon  as  it  is 
not  used  for  the  purposes  which  promote  the  interests  of  the 
family.  In  Australia,  and  in  many  another  part  of  the  world, 
primitive  men  share  and  share  alike  with  the  food-supply,  per- 
haps a  definite  portion  of  each  animal  killed  going  to  one  or  an- 
other member  of  the  food-group. 


It  may  not  be  necessary  to  labor  this  fact,  that  the  early 
man  lives  communally,  and  that  his  religion  is  distinctly  social 
in  its  nature.  We  may  therefore  pass  on  to  the  consideration 
of  another  phase  of  the  group  life,  that  which  shows  primitive 
man  to  have  been  endowed  with  a  creative  capacity  of  a  social 
nature.  We  have  been  to  such  an  extent  imbued  with  the  con- 
viction that  all  thinking  is  individual,  that  it  seems  to  be  nearly 
impossible  for  us  to  recognize  the  conditions  of  social  thinking 
and  creation.  The  tales,  legends,  and  myths  of  tribal  communi- 
ties give*  no  evidence  of  individual  origin.  Whence  they  came, 
who  originated  them,  never  appears.  No  author's  name  attaches 

[70] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

to  them.  In  their  very  nature  and  structure  they  are  of  the 
communal  type,  voicing  the  desires  and  interests  of  the  group, 
whether  it  be  a  hunting-band,  a  food-group,  a  communal  village 
or  a  tribal  fellowship  of  kinsmen.  The  tales  may  be  of  recent 
origin  or  they  may  have  on  them  the  marks  of  a  hoary  antiquity. 
They  may  relate  to  hunting  or  fishing,  to  battles  with  other 
tribes,  to  adventures  of  those  who  have  gone  down  into  the  world 
of  the  dead,  to  ascension  into  heaven  and  intercourse  with  divine 
beings,  to  the  coming  of  heroes  who  teach  the  people  new 
methods  of  life,  to  the  origin  of  plants  and  the  acquiring  of  a 
knowledge  of  their  cultivation  or  to  the  manner  in  which  some 
animal  or  ancestral  being  gave  the  tribe  its  rituals  or  its  festi- 
vals. 

It  may  be  at  once  noted  that  all  such  tales  or  myths  relate 
to  the  communal  interests.  If  the  new  custom  or  ritual  is  re- 
vealed for  the  first  time  to  an  individual,  its  purport  is  always 
tribal  in  its  nature,  to  the  ends  of  the  benefit  of  the  group  to 
which  it  is  communicated.  Since  dreams  are  always  individual 
in  their  nature,  what  is  thus  acquired  comes  through  some  one 
person ;  but  the  use  made  of  them  is  to  benefit  the  tribe  by  some 
new  access  of  power  in  behalf  of  all  its  members.  A  new  secret 
society,  a  ritual  or  festival,  comes  into  existence  in  this  manner; 
but  the  command  of  the  dream-spirit  is  that  the  clan  or  the 
tribe  shall  be  benefited  by  what  is  thus  communicated. 

Almost  universally  in  primitive,  tribal  and  feudal  Bociety 
appear  those  who  recite  the  tales  or  rehearse  the  poems  or  sing 
the  songs  belonging  to  the  life  of  the  past.  To  the  really  primi- 
tive group  the  tales  are  legends  of  adventure,  of  contact  with 
spirits,  and  are  of  communal  origin.  These  tales  or  legends 
relate  to  the  causes  of  what  the  primitive  man  wishes  to  under- 
stand. Many  of  them  are  childish,  grotesque  or  fantastic  from 
our  point  of  view.  All  of  them  are  animistic  or  anthropo- 

[71] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  EELIGION 

morphic,  that  is,  are  based  on  the  conception  that  all  events  and 
acts  are  those  of  personalities — animals,  men,  or  spirits.  The 
primitive  man  has  no  conception  of  material  or  general  causes, 
and  he  sees  in  everything  beings  like  himself.  The  wind  blows 
as  the  act  of  Boreas.  The  earth  quakes  because  a  god  is  inside 
it  turning  over  or  trying  to  get  out  of  his  prison  The  sun  is  a 
divine  being  moving  around  the  earth  diurnally,  and  disap- 
pearing at  night  because  he  goes  down  through  the  land  of  the 
dead. 

The  legends  and  myths  of  the  primitive  man,  therefore, 
are  adventures  of  beings  in  some  way  like  himself.  They  are 
tales  of  giants,  of  men  in  animal  form,  of  men  who  have  gone 
into  the  world  of  the  dead,  of  spirits  who  act  through  the  powers 
of  earth,  or  of  divine  beings  who  control  the  courses  of  nature 
and  of  human  activity.  Wheat  grows,  and  gives  an  abundant 
harvest,  because  it  is  a  divine  being  or  has  a  spirit  of  vegetation 
living  or  manifesting  itself  in  each  spear  as  it  grows  or,  it  may 
be,  in  the  species  as  a  whole.  The  tree,  the  moon,  the  Btars, 
the  earth  itself,  are,  in  their  physical  natures,  merely  the  out- 
ward manifestations  of  a  being  of  a  divine  nature  embodied  in 
them.  The  oak,  the  mistletoe,  bear,  and  bison  have  qualities 
which  are  more  than  vegetable  or  animal  in  their  nature;  but 
are  at  once,  in  each  and  every  instance,  personalities  or  of  a 
god-like  nature.  Sometimes  each  individual  has  this  quality 
of  divinity,  but  in  other  instances  there  is  a  power  that  is  per- 
sonal to  a  species  —  a  power  that  is  superior  or  divine. 

The  tales,  therefore,  are  often  of  beings  who  are  super- 
natural, possessed  of  magical  or  divine  powers,  and  who  may 
be  regarded  as  creators.  In  some  instances,  it  is  true,  the  tales 
are  purely  secular,  relating  to  events  in  the  lives  of  men  and 
women;  but  more  often  they  have  a  tinge  of  what  is  beyond 
the  natural  acts  of  human  beings.  It  is  not  surprising,  there- 

[72] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 


fore,  that  a  people  who  find  the  spiritual  everywhere,  who  are 
daily,  if  not  hourly,  in  contact  with  beings  who  are  more  than 
human,  should  delight  to  hear  of  the  adventures  of  these  beings. 
They  may  be  of  animals,  but  these  are  only  men  in  disguise, 
and  may  be  at  any  time  transformed  into  their  real  nature.  It 
may  be  the  doings  of  the  powers  of  nature — mountains,  storms, 
stars,  sun-rise,  the  moon — whose  acts  the  tales  recite;  but  these 
are  all  beings  who  act  as  men  act.  In  a  word,  nothing  appears 
in  the  world  of  the  primitive  man  which  is  not  possessed  of 
personality,  which  is  not  a  projection  of  the  desires,  the  emo- 
tions, and  the  acts  of  human  beings. 

In  studying  the  tales  and  the  myths  we  come  upon  two 
facts  of  importance.  They  may  be  communicated  from  one 
tribe  to  another,  and  they  may  spread  over  a  wide  territory, 
with  the  result  that  tribes  living  remotely  from  each  other 
may  have  the  same  tales.  In  other  instances  the  process  of 
intercommunication  cannot  be  accepted  as  the  explanation  of 
why  it  is  that  two  peoples  have  essentially  the  same  tales,  myths, 
rituals  or  explanations  of  phenomena.  When  the  tribes  are  on 
distant  islands  or  on  continents  too  remote  from  each  other  to 
permit  of  such  communication  from  one  to  the  other,  the  simi- 
larity must  be  ascribed  to  a  like  psychological  nature  in  primi- 
tive men  responding  to  similar  conditions  in  their  environment. 

We  must  recognize  the  fact,  also,  that  all  peoples  have  the 
creative  gift,  though  they  vary  greatly  in  this  respect.  The 
tales  and  myths  of  some  tribes  are  meager  and  poor,  while  others 
possess  an  astonishing  creative  power,  taking  a  wide  range  of 
expression.  The  mythology  of  the  Chinese  is  crude,  materialis- 
tic, and  unimaginative,  while  that  of  the  Hindus  is  abundant, 
highly  spiritualized,  and  transcendant  in  form  and  nature.  The 
Chinese  myths  relate  largely  to  ancestors,  those  of  the  Hindus 
to  the  adventures  of  gods  of  the  loftiest  type. 

[73] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  EELIGION 

VI 

A  few  illustrations  from  the  myths  of  primitive  peoples — 
the  word  primitive  being  used  throughout  in  preference  to 
savage,  and  applies  to  those  who  are  undeveloped  in  industries, 
arts,  and  culture — may  aid  us  in  comprehending  what  the  tales 
are  like.  The  Caddoan  tribes  of  the  southeastern  plains  region 
of  the  United  States  had  a  myth  relating  how  Mother-Corn 
came  to  them,  and  taught  them  how  to  cultivate  that  cereal. 
She  came  as  a  woman,  passing  from  tribe  to  tribe  giving  each 
the  seed  of  the  maize,  and  instructing  the  women  in  its  planting, 
and  tending.  She  also  showed  them  how  to  prepare  it  for  food, 
how  to  make  offerings  to  the  stars  and  to  the  heavenly  bodies, 
as  well  as  to  the  supernatural  beings  of  the  earth.  When  she 
had  given  all  these  instructions,  she  told  the  women  she  was 
about  to  depart,  that  she  would  reappear  to  them  as  the  moon, 
and  that  in  that  form  she  would  be  the  guardian  of  the  women. 
The  monthly  changes  in  the  phases  of  the  moon  would  be  as 
those  of  the  life  of  women,  and  that  when  they  looked  upon 
the  moon  they  would  know  that  she  was  with  them  and  watching 
over  their  interests.  In  this  manner  the  Caddoans  came  to 
know  how  to  cultivate  corn,  that  it  was  but  another  phase  of  the 
life  of  the  moon,  as  well  as  that  of  women.  Corn  to  them  was 
a  great  divine  Mother,  a  goddess  beneficent,  and  watchful  of 
the  peoples '  interests.  This  personification  of  maize  is  similar 
to  what  is  to  be  found  widely  over  the  world,  wherever  any 
kind  of  cereal  is  grown,  at  first  by  women,  and  then  by  men. 
More  highly  elaborated  myths  of  this  type  are  to  be  found  in 
Egypt  and  in  Greece. 

The  Natchez,  who  lived  on  the  lower  Mississippi,  in  Louisi- 
ana, had  a  tale  of  a  culture-hero,  who  came  to  them  to  teach 
them  how  to  govern  their  tribes  wisely  and  well.  He  came 
from  the  Sun  with  his  wife,  seemingly  being  regarded  as  a 

[74] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

being  of  the  nature  of  the  sun  itself,  who  was  the  supreme  god 
of  all  the  peoples  living  in  the  gulf -region.  This  being  said  to 
the  Natchez  that  he  had  looked  down  upon  them  from  his  abode 
in  the  sun,  and  had  been  moved  to  come  to  them  to  teach  them 
how  to  conduct  their  life  as  a  people.  He  taught  them  to  kill 
no  one  except  in  self-defense,  not  to  touch  any  woman  except 
one's  own,  not  to  take  from  another  that  which  belongs  to  him, 
not  to  lie  or  get  drunk,  not  to  be  avaricious  of  wealth,  but  to 
give  freely  for  the  welfare  of  others,  and  to  share  food  with 
those  who  are  without  it. 

These  were  the  rules  the  Sun-man  gave  for  the  guidance  of 
individuals,  and,  if  they  were  observed,  the  people  would  be 
able  to  live  orderly  and  contented  lives. 

The  people  were  so  far  pleased  with  this  teaching  that  they 
chose  this  divine  being  as  their  chief,  which  position  he  held  for 
a  long  time.  He  made  the  condition  that  the  people  should  re- 
move to  another  country;  and  the  Natchez  traditions  said  that 
they  had  come  from  the  westward  to  the  land  they  occupied 
when  the  whites  first  came  to  know  them.  The  culture-hero 
divided  the  people  into  castes  or  orders;  he  made  rules  in  re- 
gard to  the  intermarriage  of  these  orders;  and  he  ordered  the 
building  of  a  temple  and  the  establishment  of  definite  rites  of 
worship  of  the  supreme  powers.  When  this  being  who  had  come 
from  the  sun  came  to  die,  he  was  succeeded  by  his  descendants 
as  the  sovereigns  of  the  Natchez,  and,  after  him,  they  were 
called  Suns,  and  were  assumed  to  partake  of  the  nature,  in 
some  degree,  of  that  great  luminary,  ruling  for  the  enlighten- 
ment of  the  people. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  of  all  the  myths  of  the  abori- 
gines of  North  America  is  the  creation  story  of  the  Zuni  of 
New  Mexico,  as  told  in  outline  by  Frank  Hamilton  Gushing,  in 
the  thirteenth  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  American  Ethnology.  In 

[75] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

tire  beginning,  according  to  this  myth,  there  existed  the  All-cov- 
ering Father-Sky  and  Four-fold  Containing  Mother-Earth,  and 
these  two  lay  together  on  the  great  world  waters.  By  genera- 
tion these  great  ones  produced  all  things  which  are,  though  the 
Earth,  before  she  gave  birth  to  men,  and  all  things  men  can 
desire,  repulsed  the  Sky  from  her,  and  he  went  up  aloft.  The 
Earth  gave  birth  as  a  woman  gives  birth,  and  from  her  womb 
came  forth  men,  and  all  the  other  creatures  who  live  with  them. 
This  myth  of  Earth  and  Sky  is  to  be  found  widely  throughout 
the  world,  as  is  that  other  myth  of  the  Earth  as  a  mother  pro- 
ducing in  her  womb  all  the  creatures  of  whatever  kind  who  live 
on  her  bosom.  This  myth  of  the  Zuni  is  worthy  of  comparison 
with  any  that  has  been  produced  by  Hindus,  Egyptians,  or 
Greeks,  and  has  some  close  resemblances  to  those  of  which  one 
may  read  in  the  pages  of  Hesiod's  Theogony. 

Many  of  the  myths  recite  how  one  or  another  man  or  wo- 
man, perhaps  whose  mate  has  gone  down  below  in  death,  enters 
the  world  of  the  non-living  to  find  how  the  inhabitants  there 
order  their  lives,  to  find  what  is  the  happiness  there  enjoyed, 
or,  more  probably,  to  bring  back  to  earth  a  beloved  one.  One 
of  the  greatest  of  these  tales  is  that  of  the  descent  of  Ishtar, 
the  great  goddess  of  Babylonia,  into  the  land  of  No-return. 
Her  search  was  for  Tammuz,  who  had  been  cruelly  slain  by  a 
boar  in  the  mountains  of  Lebanon.  When  she  came  to  the  first 
gate  of  entrance  to  that  world  of  the  dead,  she  addressed  its 
guardian,  who  went  to  the  queen  of  that  land,  Allatu,  that  per- 
mission might  be  obtained  for  the  search  for  her  beloved.  When 
permission  had  been  secured,  the  porter  at  the  first  gate,  took 
off  the  crown  from  her  head.  When  she  inquired,  "Why,  0 
porter,  hast  thou  taken  off  the  great  crown  of  my  head?"  He 
replied,  "Enter,  my  lady,  for  such  is  the  custom  of  Allatu. " 
At  the  second  gate  there  were  removed  the  ornaments  of  her 

[76] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

ears,  and  in  succession  the  chains  about  her  neck,  the  ornaments 
of  her  breast,  the  girdle  of  her  waist,  the  bracelets  of  her  hands, 
the  anklets  of  her  feet,  the  garment  covering  her  body,  until, 
without  ornament  or  clothing,  she  appeared  in  the  presence  of 
Allatu,  the  goddess  of  the  underworld.  Allatu  did  not  welcome 
the  adventure  of  Ishtar  or  grant  her  request;  but  she  ordered 
Namtar,  her  messenger,  to  return  Ishtar  to  the  upper  world, 
and  to  restore  to  her  as  she  passed  out  of  the  land  of  No-return 
the  ornaments  and  the  clothing  of  which  she  had  been  deprived 
as  she  entered.  Accordingly  Namtar  sprinkled  Ishtar  with  the 
water  of  life  and  brought  her  forth. 
He  led  her  out  through  the  first  gate  and  restored  to  her  the 

garment  covering  the  shame  of  her  body. 
He  led  her  out  through  the  second  gate  and  restored  to  her  the 

bracelets  of  her  hands  and  the  anklets  of  her  feet. 
He  led  her  out  through  the  third  gate  and  restored  to  her  the 

studded  girdle  of  her  waist. 
He  led  her  out  through  the  fourth  gate  and  restored  to  her  the 

ornaments  of  her  breast. 
He  led  her  out  through  the  fifth  gate  and  restored  to  her  the 

chains  about  her  neck. 
He  led  her  out  through  the  sixth  gate  and  restored  to  her  the 

ornaments  of  her  ears. 
He  led  her  out  through  the  seventh  gate  and  restored  to  her  the 

great  crown  of  her  head. 

In  studying  such  myths  as  these  it  becomes  evident  that 
those  of  the  more  advanced  peoples  are  essentially  the  same  as 
those  of  many  of  the  savage  and  barbarian  races,  and  that  their 
only  superiority  is  in  the  literary  treatment  which  they  have 
received  in  their  later  developments.  Heredotus  informs  us 
that  the  Greek  gods  were  invented  by  Hesiod  and  Homer,  but 
we  now  know  this  statement  not  to  have  had  any  foundation  in 

[77] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF   RELIGION 

truth.  The  myth  of  Demeter,  as  told  in  the  Homeric  Hymns, 
shows  us  that  this  goddess  of  the  ripened  corn  (wheat  and  bar- 
ley) was  essentially  the  same  being  as  the  Corn-Mother  of  the 
Caddoans,  though  it  had  been  greatly  elaborated  in  the  Eleu- 
sinian  Mysteries  and  by  the  poets.  We  can  conceive  it  to  have 
been  possible,  if  the  Caddoan  peoples  had  been  left  undisturbed 
for  a  thousand  years,  that  they  might  have  developed  mysteries 
similar  to  those  of  Eleusis,  and  hymns  similar  to  those  attrib- 
uted to  Homer.  It  is  not  probable,  but  possible,  that  such  a 
result  may  have  been  in  time  worked  out. 

The  Mountain  and  the  Night  Chants  of  the  Navaho  of  New 
Mexico,  a  crude  and  uncultured  people,  of  Athapascan  or  Dene 
origin,  having  come  from  some  far  northern  region  centuries 
ago,  may  show  us  what  is  possible  to  a  people  of  this  type. 
These  chants  or  ceremonies  are  for  the  healing  of  the  sick,  and 
had  their  origin  in  the  demand  for  some  effective  method  in 
dealing  with  disease.  These  ceremonies  are  held  in  winter, 
and  consist  of  songs,  a  variety  of  ceremonies,  paintings  made 
in  painted  sand  to  represent  the  gods  and  their  acts,  and  prayers 
to  the  divinities  for  health  to  the  people  and  to  some  individual 
who  is  able  to  meet  the  expense  of  these  prolonged  ceremonials. 
In  his  book  on  North  American  Mythology,  the  tenth  volume  in 
the  Mythology  of  All  Races,  Hartley  Burr  Alexander  says  of 
the  Night  Chant  that  it  has  a  nine  day  period.  He  gives  this 
account  of  the  ritual:  "On  the  first  day  holy  articles  and  the 
sacred  lodge  are  prepared;  on  the  second,  the  sweat-house  and 
the  first  sand-painting  are  made,  and  the  song  of  the  approach 
of  the  gods  is  sung:  prayers  and  a  second  sweat-house  are 
features  of  the  third  day,  while  the  fourth  is  devoted  to  pre- 
parations for  the  vigil  which  occupies  the  fourth  night,  at  which 
the  sacred  masks  of  the  gods  are  sprinkled  with  pollen  and 
water  and  a  communal  supper  is  followed  by  a  banquet;  the 

[78] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF   RELIGION 

principal  feature  of  each  of  the  next  four  days  is  the  prepara- 
tion of  an  elaborate  sand-painting  of  the  gods,  each  picture 
symbolizing  a  mythic  revelation,  and  the  touching  of  the  affected 
parts  of  the  body  of  the  sick  with  the  colored  sands  from  the 
analagous  parts  of  the  divine  image;  the  ninth  day  is  devoted 
to  preparations  for  the  great  ceremony  which  marks  the  ninth 
night,  at  which  the  masque  of  the  gods  is  presented.  It  is  from 
this  masque  of  the  ninth  night  that  the  Night  Chant  gets  its 
name,  and  this  is  the  night,  too,  of  that  prayer  to  the  dark  bird 
(of  thunder)  who  is  the  chief  of  pollen  which  is  perhaps  the 
most  poetic  description  of  the  genius  of  thunder-cloud  and 
rain  in  Indian  literature,  and  which  runs  thus,  abridged  from 
(Washington)  Matthew's  translation — 

In  Tsegihi, 

In  the  house  made  of  dawn, 

In  the  house  made  of  evening  twilight, 

In  the  house  made  of  dark  cloud, 

In  the  house  made  of  rain  and  mist,  of  pollen,  of  grasshoppers, 

Where  the  dark  mist  curtains  the  doorway, 

The  path  to  which  is  on  the  rainbow, 

Where  the  zigzag  lightning  stands  high  on  top, 

Where  the  he-rain  stands  high  on  top, 

Oh,  male  divinity! 

With  your  moccasins  of  dark  cloud,  come  to  us, 

With  your  leggings  and  shirt  and  head-dress  of  dark  cloud,  come  to  us, 

With  your  mind  enveloped  in  dark  cloud,  come  to  us, 

With  the  dark  thunder  above  you,  come  to  us  soaring, 

With  the  shapen  cloud  at  your  feet,  come  to  us  soaring, 

With  the  far  darkness  made  of  the  dark  cloud  over  your  head,  come 

to  us  soaring, 
With  the  far  darkness  of  the  rain  and  mist  over  your  head,  come  to 

us  soaring. 

With  the  zigzag  lightning  flung  out  on  high  over  your  head, 
With  the  rainbow  hanging  high  over  your  head,  come  to  us  soaring. 
With  the  far  darkness  made  of  the  dark  cloud  on  the  ends  of  your 

wings, 

[79] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

With  the  far  darkness  made  of  the  rain  and  the  mist  on  the  ends  of 

your  wings,  come  to  us  soaring, 
With  the  zigzag  lightning,  with  the  rainbow  hanging  high  on  the  ends 

of  your  wings,  come  to  us  soaring. 
With  the  near  darkness  made  of  the  dark  cloud  of  the  rain  and  the 

mist,  come  to  us, 

With  the  darkness  on  the  earth,  come  to  us. 
With  these  I  wish  the  foam  floating  on  the  flowing  water  over  the 

roots  of  the  great  corn. 
I  have  made  your  sacrifice, 
I  have  made  a  smoke  for  you, 
My  feet  restore  for  me. 
My  limbs  restore,  my  body  restore,  my  mind  restore,  my  voice  restore 

for  me. 

Today,  take  out  your  spell  for  me, 
Today,  take  away  your  spell  for  me, 
Away  from  me  you  have  taken  it, 
Far  away  from  me  it  is  taken, 
Far  off  you  have  done  it. 
Happily  I  recover, 
Happily  I  become  cool, 
My  eyes  regain  their  power,  my  head  cools,  my  limbs  regain  their 

strength,  I  hear  again. 
Happily  for  me  the  spell  is  taken  off, 
Happily  I  walk;  impervious  to  pain,  I  walk;  light  within,  I  walk; 

joyous,  I  walk. 

Abundant  dark  clouds  I  desire, 
An  abundance  of  vegetation  I  desire, 
An  abundance  of  pollen,  abundant  dew,  I  desire. 
Happily  my  fair  white  corn,  to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  come  with  you, 
Happily  my  fair  yellow  corn,  fair  blue  corn,  fair  corn  of  all  kinds, 

plants  of  all  kinds,  jewels  of  all  kinds,  to  the  ends  of  the 

earth,  come  with  you. 

With  these  before  you,  happily  may  they  come  with  you, 
With  these  behind,  below,  above,  around  you,  happily  may  they  come 

with  you, 

Thus  you  accomplish  your  tasks. 
Happily  the  old  men  will  regard  you, 
Happily  the  old  women  will  regard  you, 
The  young  men  and  the  young  women  will  regard  you, 
The  children  will  regard  you, 
The  chiefs  will  regard  you, 

[80] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF   RELIGION 

Happily,  as  they  scatter  in  different  directions,  they  will  regard  you, 

Happily,  as  they  approach  their  homes,  they  will  regard  you. 

May  their  roads  home  be  on  the  trail  of  peace, 

Happily  may  they  all  return.  . 

In  beauty  I  walk, 

With  beauty  before  me,  I  walk, 

With  beauty  behind  me,  I  walk, 

With  beauty  above  and  about  me,  I  walk. 

It  is  finished  in  beauty, 

It  is  finished  in  beauty." 

Here  we  have  a  prolonged  series  of  ceremonials,  which  con- 
stitute together  a  prayer  to  the  higher  powers  for  health,  pros- 
perity, and  peace.  Had  they  been  developed  in  Babylonia, 
Egypt  or  Greece  they  would  have  been  minutely  studied  and 
interpreted.  In  fact,  this  chant  is  worthy  of  comparison  with 
many  of  the  Homeric  Hymns.  It  is  not  more  repetitious,  and 
it  has  fully  as  much  poetic  beauty.  Although  it  is  cruder,  less 
perfected,  this  may  be  wholly  owing  to  its  not  having  passed 
through  the  hands  of  a  poet  of  cultivated  tastes. 

The  chants  of  the  Navaho,  taken  in  connection  with  their 
mythology,  the  story  of  the  adventures  of  the  Great  Goddess, 
and  their  lesser  divinities,  may  be  brought  into  juxtoposition 
with  the  Egyptian  myth  of  Osiris  and  Isis,  and  not  wholly  Buffer 
in  the  comparison.  At  any  rate,  it  is  by  studying  the  myths 
of  these  more  primitive  peoples  that  we  come  to  a  comprehen- 
sion of  those  of  the  more  advanced  nations  of  antiquity. 

The  myth  of  Osiris  and  Isis  is  one  of  the  most  important 
of  all  those  which  come  to  us  from  the  ancient  world,  and 
appears  to  have  originated  in  the  pre-historic  age.  '  Evidently 
it  was  developed  out  of  very  early  conditions,  when  the  valley 
of  the  Nile  was  being  reduced  to  a  state  of  cultivation.  It  prob- 
ably underwent  in  the  course  of  ages  many  a  transformation, 
and  grew  with  the  growth  of  Egyptian  civilization.  The  story 
is  that  Osiris  was  a  king  of  Egypt,  that  he  married  his  sister 

[81] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

Isis,  according  to  Egyptian  custom,  that  he  was  slain  by  his 
brother  Set,  who  scattered  the  parts  of  his  body  far  and  wide. 
Isis  gathered  together  the  fragments,  and,  with  the  aid  of  the 
gods,  Osiris  was  restored  to  life,  became  the  father  of  Horus, 
who  avenged  his  father's  death  in  the  destruction  of  his  uncle. 
Osiris  became  the  god  of  the  under-world,  and  the  type  of 
resurrection  from  the  dead  to  immortality.  Isis  was  perhaps 
a  goddess  of  fertility  in  plants,  animals,  and  women.  Her  de- 
votion to  Horus  led  to  her  elevation  to  the  position  of  the  great 
Mother-Goddess.  Out  of  the  relation  of  the  two  grew  the  myth 
of  the  mother  and  the  child,  the  forerunner  of  that  of  the  Ma- 
donna and  the  Christ-child.  The  worship  of  Isis  spread  widely 
in  the  Roman  world,  and  for  a  time  she  was  revered  more  zeal- 
ously than  any  other  divinity. 

VII 

These  glimpses  at  various  phases  in  the  growth  of  myths 
may  hint  at  their  communal  or  group-nature.  They  did  not 
originate  in  the  genius  of  individual  poets,  as  Herodotus  as- 
sumed to  be  true  with  regard  to  the  myths  embodied  in  the  Iliad 
and  the  Odyssey.  Some  suggestions  as  to  their  growth  may  be 
found  in  the  history  of  the  Rig- Veda.  The  thousand  or  more 
hymns  of  the  Hindu  collection,  the  oldest  work  in  the  literature 
of  India,  were  originated  at  an  early  period  of  the  presence  of 
the  Aryans  in  the  peninsula  of  Hindustan.  They  were  com- 
posed perhaps  a  thousand  years  before  writing  was  invented, 
were  carried  in  the  memories  of  the  bards  from  whom  they  came, 
and  then  were  transmitted  from  one  generation  to  another  of  the 
priestly  class  by  whom  they  were  especially  conserved.  It  can- 
not be  supposed  that  while  these  hymns  were  being  retained  by 
the  members  of  some  twenty-five  generations  of  bards  and  priests 

[82] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

without  being  put  into  writing,  that  they  underwent  no  change. 
We  know  that  the  tales  recited  by  primitive  peoples  are  con- 
stantly undergoing  a  process  of  growth,  that  every  clever  re- 
citer of  them  modifies  them  in  one  degree  or  another.  In  this 
manner  they  are  being  brought  into  conformity  with  any  changes 
in  the  tribal  life,  either  through  culture-growth,  or  as  the  re- 
sult of  contact  with  other  tribes. 

The  same  processes  undoubtedly  went  on  in  India,  and  the 
Vedic  hymns  show  many  evidences  of  this  process  of  elaboration 
in  the  mythology  they  present.  In  this  way  we  may  account 
for  the  varied  phases  of  that  mythology,  its  ascribed  supreme 
power  to  several  different  gods,  its  advance  from  a  crude  poly- 
theism to  a  highly  refined  pantheism  in  the  most  remarkable 
of  the  hymns,  and  even  to  an  earlier  type  of  monotheism,  or 
what  has  sometimes  been  called  henotheism. 

In  a  later  age  somewhat  the  same  processes  brought  the 
Mahabharata,  the  great  epic  poem  of  India,  into  existence. 
This  most  extended  of  all  the  epic  poems  of  the  world  has  been 
described  by  Julius  Eggeling  as  ''consisting  of  a  heterogeneous 
mass  of  legendary  and  didactic  matter,  worked  into  and  round 
a  central  heroic  narrative. "  Although  the  name  of  Vyasa  is 
attached  to  this  great  work,  it  is  quite  evident  that  it  could 
not  have  been  produced  by  one  person,  but  that  it  was  the  growth 
of  many  years.  Parts  of  it  are  distinctly  traditional,  and  may 
have  been  the  growth  of  many  centuries.  Other  parts  of  it,  as 
the  particular  portion  known  as  the  Bhagavat-gita,  were  pro- 
ably  the  work  of  individual  poets.  In  this  work  myth,  legend, 
folk-lore,  tradition  of  historical  events,  early  poetic  productions, 
were  being  gathered  together  to  form  a  remarkable  whole.  It 
has  little  unity,  and  is  a  rambling  miscellany  of  poetry,  some  of 
it  of  great  beauty,  but  much  of  it  crude  and  of  the  essential 
nature  of  prose. 

[83] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

The  evidence  seems  to  indicate  that  the  Mahabharata  is 
somewhat  of  the  nature  of  an  anthology,  even  though  there  runs 
through  the  work  a  central  heroic  narrative.  According  to 
Arthur  A.  Macdonell,  in  his  work  on  Sanscrit  Literature,  this 
epic  contains  archaic  verses  and  old  prose  stories,  artificial 
speeches,  legends  about  gods,  kings,  and  sages,  accounts  of  cos- 
mogony and  theogony;  disquisitions  on  philosophy,  law,  reli- 
gion, along  with  an  extended  epic  account  of  a  great  battle. 
As  Macdonell  says,  the  poem  contains  an  original  kernel  of 
historic  truth,  in  a  conflict  between  two  neighboring  tribes ;  and 
one  of  the  chief  characters  in  it  also  finds  a  place  in  the  Rig- 
Veda.  The  earliest  stage  of  the  poem  goes  back,  probably,  to 
the  tenth  century  B.  C.  Old  battle-songs  of  the  tribal  conflict 
were  handed  down  by  word  of  mouth,  and  recited  or  sung  in 
the  popular  assemblies  or  at  the  great  public  sacrifices.  These 
may  have  been  brought  together  into  a  short  epic  narrative 
about  the  fifth  century  B.  C.  In  this  part  of  the  work  are  to  be 
found  the  accounts  of  the  old  heroic  spirit  and  the  descriptions 
of  tribal  life.  Here  the  chief  god  is  Brahma,  who  is  presented 
almost  in  a  monotheistic  spirit. 

In  this  age  before  writing,  in  which  the  poem  took  its  first 
form,  it  was  recited  by  bards  or  rhapsodists,  and  by  them 
was  gradually  expanded  with  the  incorporation  of  new  materials. 
Vishnu,  especially  as  incarnated  in  Krishna,  was  developed  as 
one  of  the  great  gods,  and  Civa  was  also  given  a  place,  though 
not  one  of  as  much  importance.  At  a  later  stage  the  Brahmans 
incorporated  in  the  work  that  kind  of  didactic  information  which 
was  designed  to  impress  the  kings  and  the  people  with  the  im- 
portance of  the  priestly  caste.  A  great  number  of  episodes, 
many  of  them  of  considerable  length,  not  only  increased  greatly 
the  bulk  of  the  poem,  but  were  evidently  added  at  various 
periods,  and  had  no  real  connection  with  the  original  epic  nar- 

[84] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

rative.  It  is  not  improbable  that  the  poem  was  in  the  process  of 
growth  during  several  hundred  years.  The  ascription  of  the 
authorship  to  Vyasa,  which  name  means  " Arranger,"  can 
mean  nothing  more  than  that  some  poet  brought  together  the 
several  parts  of  the  great  poem,  and  arranged  them  in  the  form 
which  has  been  known  almost  since  the  beginning  of  our  era. 

It  would  appear,  therefore,  that  the  poem  as  we  have  it  is 
a  growth,  that  some  of  its  parts,  such  as  the  Bhagavat-gita  and 
the  concluding  Harivamca,  were  written  by  individual  poets; 
but  that  large  portions  of  the  whole  work  may  be  attributed  to 
a  collective  origin,  that  is,  that  they  had  a  distinctly  traditional 
or  legendary  source.  This  conclusion  is  confirmed  by  the  fact 
that  the  poem  was  at  an  early  time  recited  in  the  temples,  and 
in  some  of  them  daily.  Even  down  to  the  present  such  recita- 
tions are  frequent,  sometimes  in  temples  and  sometimes  in  fami- 
lies. The  object  is  to  give  information  to  those  not  otherwise 
able  to  acquire  a  knowledge  of  the  work.  Such  recitations, 
however,  are  not  confined  to  this  poem,  but  include  other  of  the 
older  works  connected  with  tradition  or  with  history.  In  this 
manner,  or  one  similar,  the  Vedas  were  brought  to  a  knowledge 
of  the  people.  It  would  appear,  therefore,  that  this  practice 
was  regarded  not  only  as  desirable,  but  as  in  harmony  with  the 
sacred  or  highly  important  character  of  such  works.  Such 
practice  in  the  early  time  would  give  the  amplest  opportunity 
for  the  incorporation  of  fresh  materials  into  the  poem  and  into 
other  works.  In  this  manner  they  grew,  fortuitously,  as  it 
were,  and  without  any  distinctly  individual  authorship.  In 
time  what  was  in  this  manner  incorporated  with  the  poem  came 
to  have  a  like  value,  and  to  be  received  as  equally  authentic  in 
its  nature.  Probably  the  sacred  books  grew  in  the  same  manner ; 
and  the  new  materials,  soon  acquired  a  sacred  nature  compatible 
with  the  older  portions. 

[85] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  EELIGION 

The  Jewish  sacred  writings  afford  an  illustration  of  the 
manner  in  which  early  works  were  composed.  In  Genesis, 
Judges,  Kings,  and  others  of  the  early  books,  we  find  a  large 
amount  of  folk-lore,  legend,  and  other  traditional  material  of 
various  kinds.  Some  of  it  was  primitive  poetry,  some  of  it 
attempts  to  account  for  the  origin  of  the  earth,  man,  languages 
and  the  varied  features  of  human  institutions  and  customs.  A 
considerable  body  of  this  material  is  to  be  found  in  the  Baby- 
lonian legends  and  cosmological  narratives,  but  reinterpreted 
to  suit  the  monotheistic  ideas  of  the  later  Jewish  beliefs.  Then 
there  are  legendary  narratives  of  the  migration  of  the  Jewish 
people  to  Palestine,  their  battles  with  the  previous  inhabitants 
of  that  land,  and  the  establishment  of  the  monarchy,  the  strug- 
gles with  polytheism,  the  wars  with  the  neighboring  great  na- 
tions, and  the  subjection  of  the  Jews  to  these  greater  powers. 
There  is  no  reason  for  doubting  that  much  in  these  narratives, 
especially  in  the  later  periods,  is  essentially  historical,  as  much 
so  as  any  early  history. 

What  is  evident,  however,  is  that  these  books  are  compila- 
tions, and  that  their  contents  are  results  of  long-continued 
processes  of  growth.  It  is  now  fully  recognized  that  the  Pente- 
teuch,  and  other  works,  were  compiled  out  of  two  or  more  pre- 
viously existing  books  or  legendary  narratives,  some  of  the 
smaller  portions  of  which  were,  perhaps,  not  previously  com- 
mitted to  writing.  For  more  than  a  century  it  has  been  definitely 
recognized  that  the  Penteteuch  embodies  two  quite  distinct  nar- 
ratives, one  of  them  naming  God  as  Yahweh  and  the  other  as 
Elohim;  and  these  works  vary  from  each  other  in  many  an- 
other particular.  The  two  were  brought  together  at  some  period 
after  monotheism  had  been  accepted,  and  the  attempt  was  made 

[86] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  EELIGION 

to  bring  them  into  complete  harmony  with  each  other.  A  con- 
siderable amount  of  other  material  was  also  made  use  of  by  the 
compiler  or  compilers.  At  what  period  or  by  whom  this  com- 
pilation was  made  we  do  not  fully  know;  but  it  must  have  been 
at  a  comparatively  late  era,  and  after  Judaism  had  taken  on  a 
definite  form.  The  monotheistic  interpretation  of  the  world 
and  life  had  been  then  definitely  accepted,  and  the  old  narratives 
were  reconstructed  to  fit  into  this  new  conception  of  the  nature 
of  God  and  of  the  life  of  humanity. 

In  the  second  book  of  Kings  there  is  an  account  of  the 
finding  of  Deuteronomy  in  the  temple  in  Jerusalem,  and  it  was 
made  the  basis  of  a  radical  reformation  of  the  old  religion.  It 
may  be  conjectured  that  at  this  period,  and  in  connection  with 
this  reformatory  movement,  the  reediting  of  the  old  narratives 
took  place.  Some  interpreters  of  the  Jewish  sacred  books,  how- 
ever, are  of  the  opinion  that  there  we/e  later  and  more  radical 
reconstructions,  at  least  so  far  as  concerns  the  interpretation 
given  to  the  history  and  to  the  theology  of  the  Jewish  people. 
If  the  reform  connected  with  the  writing  of  Deuteronomy  was 
priestly  in  its  source,  the  prophetical  works,  so  called,  owed 
their  origin  to  another  class  of  men,  known  as  the  prophets, 
who  were  essentially  reformers.  They  gave  a  later,  and  a  much 
more  advanced,  interpretation  to  the  historical  narratives,  and 
of  the  relations  of  the  Jewish  nation  to  its  God. 

What  the  higher  critics  of  the  sacred  writings  of  the  Jews 
suggest  is,  that  the  books  brought  together  in  these  scriptures 
were  the  result  of  more  than  a  thousand  years  of  growth,  that 
many,  if  not  nearly  all,  of  these  works  had  no  individual  author- 
ship, that  the  names  attributed  to  them  as  their  authors  were 
only  traditionally  so,  and  that  the  idea  of  their  sacred  character 
was  in  itself  the  result  of  a  long  evolutionary  process. 

[87] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF   RELIGION 

VIII 

A  controversy  of  more  than  a  century  in  duration  has  de- 
veloped around  the  Greek  epics  attributed  to  Homer.  Was  there 
a  man  of  that  name  who  wrote  them  or  were  they  the  growth 
of  many  centuries  of  poetical  expression?  The  tendency  re- 
cently seems  to  be  toward  the  conclusion  that  the  poet  Homer  is 
of  legendary  origin,  that  we  have  no  definite  information  in  re- 
gard to  him,  and  that  in  reality  he  represents  a  profession  or  a 
succession  of  bards,  rather  than  any  distinct  individuality. 
Gilbert  Murray,  in  his  lectures  on  The  Rise  of  Greek  Epic, 
says  that  "what  the  Greeks  of  the  sixth  and  early  centuries 
meant  by  'Homer'  was  the  whole  body  of  heroic  tradition  as 
embodied  in  hexameter  verse."  He  goes  on  to  say  of  the  body 
of  epic  verse  which  was  described  under  the  appellation  Homer : 
"It  must  really  have  been  something  more  primitive  and  less 
differentiated,  of  which  the  epic  epos,  the  lists  of  ancestors,  the 
local  chronicles,  the  theological,  magical,  and  philosophical 
writings,  as  well  as  the  heroic  poems,  are  so  many  specialized 
developments.  It  has  long  been  clear  to  students  of  early  Greece 
that  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey  are  not  primitive  poems.  Not  only 
their  art  and  construction,  but  their  whole  outlook  on  the  world 
and  the  gods  is  far  removed  from  that  of  the  most  primitive 
Greeks  known  to  us.  Both  poems,  indeed,  contain  a  great  deal 
of  extremely  ancient  matter;  but  both,  as  they  stand,  are  the 
products  of  a  long  process  of  development." 

Since  no  one  has  more  clearly  and  definitely  stated  this 
view  of  the  origin  of  these  epics  than  has  Gilbert  Murray,  there 
may  be  summarized  here  his  conclusions,  as  stated  in  the  above 
mentioned  work,  and  in  his  book  on  Greek  Literature.  At  the 
beginning  of  his  sixth  lecture  he  says  that  the  Iliad  is  a  tradi- 
tional book,  modified  by  succeeding  generations,  and  gives  us  a 
mixture  of  earlier  and  later  customs.  While  he  admits  that 

[88] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

there  can  be  no  demonstration  of  that  kind  of  origin  for  the 
epic  which  he  believes  is  the  true  one,  yet  he  presents  a  con- 
siderable body  of  evidence  in  favor  of  the  conclusions  which  he 
has  reached.  There  is  no  positive  proof  that  these  poems  grew 
through  several  centuries,  and  that  they  are  the  work  of  a  long 
succession  of  epic  poets  or  schools  of  such  poets ;  but  the  cumula- 
tive evidence  of  all  kinds  gives  very  strong  intimations  that 
such  a  conclusion  must  be  accepted.  This  view  of  their  origin 
gains  added  emphasis  from  the  fact  that  all  other  similar  works 
of  the  early  period  appear  to  have  had  a  like  origin. 

In  the  early  Greek  traditions  everything  heroic  was  attri- 
buted to  Homer,  with  the  result  that  several  works  not  included 
in  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey  are  credited  to  him,  for  there  was  a 
Little  Iliad,  a  Cypria,  a  Telegonia,  and  other  poems  or  bodies 
of  legendary  narrative.  Aeschylus  credited  to  Homer  the  whole 
of  the  heroic  saga,  and  Athenaeus  says  that  the  dramatist  re- 
joiced in  the  epic  cycle  and  made  whole  dramas  out  of  it. 
Xenophanes  in  the  sixth  century  credited  to  Homer  and  Hesiod 
the  epic  traditions,  sagas  and  theogonies  alike.  Herodotus  be- 
lieved these  poets  made  the  Greek  religion,  gave  the  gods  their 
titles,  honors  and  crafts,  and  gave  a  description  of  each  of  them. 
Tradition  attributed  to  Pisistratus  the  collection  of  the  Homeric 
sagas,  which  were  formerly  sung  in  fragments.  Such  evidence 
as  this  may  have  little  value,  but  it  tends  to  corroborate  the 
theory  presented  by  Murray,  that  the  poems  grew  out  of  the 
developing  poetic  life  of  the  early  Greeks. 

To  the  same  effect  is  the  fact  that  late  in  the  sixth  or  early 
seventh  century  the  Homeric  poems  were  recited  in  Athens 
publicly  in  a  prescribed  order.  "They  were  recited  not  by  one 
bard/'  says  Murray,  "but  by  relays  of  bards,  in  fixed  order 
at  the  Panathenaea,  the  greatest  of  all  the  festivals  of  Athens, 
recurring  once  in  four  years  and  lasting  several  days.  The 

[89] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

recitation  formed  one  step  in  a  movement  on  the  part  of  Athens 
to  establish  herself  as  head  and  mother-city  of  all  the  lonians. 
So  much  seems  historically  clear.  It  matters  little  that,  in  at- 
tributing the  institution  of  this  recitation  to  a  definite  founder, 
our  authorities  waver  between  three  almost  contemporary  names, 
Solon,  Pisistratus,  Hipparchus.  These  festivals  meant  much 
more  in  ancient  life  than  any  corresponding  ceremony  at  the 
present  day.  At  the  back  of  them  there  was  a  living  religious 
effort ;  there  was  the  ancient  warmth  of  patriotic  feeling  towards 
a  city  which  formed  for  each  man  his  one  earthly  protector 
and  his  intimate  home,  and  which,  for  a  further  claim  upon 
emotion,  was  never  for  long  quite  out  of  mortal  danger.  The 
Panathenaea  in  especial  formed  the  great  occasion  for  the  gather- 
ing of  all  Ionian  cities  under  the  wing  of  the  great  Metropolis, 
their  champion  and  leader  against  the  barbarian/' 

Pindar,  and  tradition  down  to  his  time,  knew  all  the  Trojan 
and  Theban  epic  poems  as  those  of  Homer.  In  Ionia  this  body 
of  epic  poetry  was  in  the  possession  of  the  'Homeridai'  or 
'rhapsodoi;'  organized,  as  there  is  evidence  for  thinking,  into 
schools  or  guilds.  Pindar  tells  us  that  these  rhapsodes  intro- 
duced their  recitations  with  a  hymn  to  one  or  another  god,  such 
as  we  find  in  the  Homeric  Hymns,  which  were  probably  pro- 
duced in  this  manner.  They  recited,  following  this  prologue, 
some  selected  old  heroic  legend  in  their  own  words,  and  with 
such  interpretation  of  it  as  would  most  appeal  to  their  hearers, 
whoever  they  might  be.  They  had  no  prescribed  text,  no  au- 
thenticated version,  since  writing  had  not  as  yet  come  into  use. 
They  followed  their  own  devices,  contracting  or  expanding  the 
legends  as  they  pleased  or  adding  new  materials,  if  such  had 
come  within  their  reach.  Murray  is  of  the  opinion  that  the 
Homeric  epics  are  full  of  traces  of  the  work  of  the  rhapsodes; 
"they  are  developments  from  the  recited  saga,  and  where  they 

[90] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

fail  in  unity  or  consistency  the  recited  saga  is  mostly  to  blame. '  ' 
It  must  be  recognized,  also,  that  there  is  in  these  poems  a 
a  development  of  social  customs,  which  may  be  traced  through 
them,  a  considerable  advance  having  been  made  from  the  earlier 
to  the  very  latest  parts  of  the  epics.  This  growth  pertains  to 
marriage  customs,  to  the  interpretation  of  the  nature  and  char- 
acteristics of  the  individual  gods,  and  also  to  the  whole  manner 
of  regarding  the  supernatural. 

The  Iliad  may  have  begun,  as  did  the  Mahabharatta,  as  an 
episode  concerning  two  contending  warriors  before  Troy,  that 
is,  as  an  account  of  a  great  battle  between  tribes  or  civiliza- 
tions. This  battle  narrative  invited  additions,  incorporation 
of  other  incidents,  description  of  the  combatants,  the  causes  of 
the  struggle  and  a  great  number  of  other  expansions,  growing 
through  many  centuries.  The  language  used  especially  grew  up 
to  meet  the  needs  of  these  heroic  narratives,  and  was  highly 
poetical,  artificial,  distinctly  conventionalized,  though  it  ac- 
quired a  sonorous  and  splendid  character.  This  wonderful 
mode  of  speech,  according  to  Murray,  was  for  centuries  kept 
alive  to  serve  nothing  but  the  needs  of  poetry.  This  also  he 
says,  and  it  is  very  pertinent  to  our  present  purpose :  ' '  The  in- 
tensity of  imagination  which  makes  the  Iliad  alive  is  not  the 
imagination  of  any  one  man.  It  means  not  that  one  man  of 
genius  created  a  wonder  and  passed  away.  It  means  that  genera- 
tion after  generation  of  poets,  trained  in  the  same  schools  and 
a  more  or  less  continuous  and  similar  life,  steeped  themselves  to 
the  lips  in  the  spirit  of  this  great  poetry.  They  lived  in  the 
Epic  saga  and  by  it  and  for  it.  Great  as  it  was,  for  many  cen- 
turies they  continued  to  build  it  up  yet  greater. ' ' 

How  this  was  done  Murray  very  definitely  states  in  the  last 
paragraph  of  his  seventh  lecture,  where  he  says:  "The  Greek 
traditions  from  the  very  outset  were  made  into  Lays  to  be  re- 

[91] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

cited  by  bards  for  the  delectation  of  the  camp  or  the  hall.  If 
men  were  not  interested,  it  was  the  fault  of  the  bard  and  his 
poems.  And  in  the  very  earliest  times  of  Greece  we  meet  with 
that  characteristic  and  only  half  praiseworthy  Greek  institu- 
tion, the  public  competitive  recitation.  The  poems  became,  in 
the  Greek  phrase,  epideiktika,  things  of  display.  The  bards 
who  knew  the  traditions  came  to  recite  at  the  great  games  and 
gatherings.  Each  recited  his  own  poems — i.  e.  those  that  he 
'possessed/  not  necessarily  those  that  he  had  composed — and 
tried  to  make  them  more  attractive  than  other  people's.  He 
was  bound,  of  course,  not  to  violate  history  too  grossly;  not  to 
be  pheudas,  or  false-speaking,  above  all  not  to  be  ignorant.  But 
he  might,  by  the  help  of  the  Muses,  tell  his  audience  a  great  deal 
more  about  the  heroes  than  by  any  human  means  he  was  likely 
to  know.  He  could  work  up  the  known  incidents  till  they  be- 
came more  and  more  moving,  more  edifying  or  more  pleasing. 
An  element  was  thus  admitted  which  leavened  the  whole  lump, 
an  element  which,  in  the  hands  of  a  less  wonderfully  gifted 
people,  must,  one  would  think,  have  led  to  bombast  and  vul- 
garity, but  which  was  somehow  stopped  when  it  had  done  its 
maximum  of  good  and  was  only  just  well  started  on  its  career 
of  evil ;  I  mean  that  strange  mixed  passion  known  to  all  artists, 
which  consists,  at  its  highest  end,  in  the  pure  love  of  beautiful 
or  noble  creation,  and,  at  its  lower  end,  in  conscious  strain  for 
the  admiration  of  an  audience. " 

We  have  but  to  assume  that  these  epic  products  were  grad- 
ually gathered  up  into  the  great  poems  as  we  possess  them. 
The  process  may  not  have  been  precisely  that  of  Lonnrot  in  the 
production  of  the  Kalevala;  but  his  method  may  suggest  what 
process  may  have  been  followed  at  the  earlier  period.  All 
other  epics  seem  to  have  come  into  existence  in  much  the  same 
manner,  there  being  no  unequivocal  proof  in  any  instance  that 

[92] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  EELIGION 

they  were  owing  to  the  work  of  individual  poets,  such  as  tradi- 
tion provided  for  them.  This  appears  to  have  been  the  case 
with  the  Shah  Nameh,  and  with  many  another  epic  poem  of  the 
earlier  centuries.  It  was  markedly  true  of  the  Nibelungun-lied 
and  the  sagas  of  the  Scandinavian  countries.  The  legends  which 
appear  in  the  Nibelungun-lied  began  their  growth  in  the  primi- 
tive period  of  the  Teutonic  peoples,  spread  from  one  tribe  and 
nation  to  another,  gradually  expanded  in  the  number  and  variety 
of  their  incidents,  were  recited  in  halls  and  castles  by  a  long 
succession  of  bards,  and  finally  took  the  form  in  which  we  know 
them.  Not  one  of  these  epics  can  be  said  to  be  exclusively  the 
work  of  a  single  poet;  and  this  is  so  far  true  that  for  most  of 
them  no  personal  name  appears  as  the  author.  Even  where  this 
is  the  case  these  names  are  as  legendary  as  the  episodes  in  the 
poems  themselves. 

It  must  be  recognized,  of  course,  that  the  Nibelungun-lied 
has  a  basis  in  history,  as  in  probably  the  case  with  all  the  epics  of 
which  we  are  now  treating.  Some  of  the  episodes  are  historical, 
the  customs  may  be  of  the  same  character;  but  the  incidents 
are  growths  of  the  epic  genius  of  the  people,  not  of  an  indi- 
vidual poet  of  whom  we  can  give  definite  and  positive  informa- 
tion. The  process  of  development  is  essentially  that  described 
in  the  instance  of  the  growth  of  the  Iliad.  The  same  general 
description  will  apply  to  the  Norwegian  and  Icelandic  sagas. 
If  the  Greeks  had  in  any  degree  an  epic  genius  superior  to 
the  more  northern  bards,  which  may  be  questioned,  it  does  not 
appear  in  their  possessing  any  different  or  superior  method  in 
the  production  of  their  poetic  legends,  now  appearing  as  epic 
poems.  The  process  as  to  methods  of  creation  appears  to  have 
been  essentially  the  same,  and  the  results  were  not  widely  differ- 
ent. In  all  parts  of  northern  and  western  Europe  similar  poems 
made  their  appearance,  and  in  considerable  numbers;  but  they 

[93] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

were  produced,  we  must  believe,  in  the  same  manner  and  for 
the  same  purposes.  They  were  originally  the  work  of  genera- 
tions of  bards,  wandering  minstrels,  reciters  of  poems  in  the 
house,  the  castle  or  in  the  public  assembly.  In  the  later  tribal, 
and  in  the  feudal  ages,  everywhere  such  productions  were  in 
great  demand  for  this  purpose.  The  demand  produced  what  was 
required,  and,  wherever  heroic  poems  were  thus  produced 
they  served  the  same  essential  purpose  of  keeping  alive  legends 
and  traditions  in  an  age  before  writing  was  invented  or  had 
come  into  active  use. 

IX 

Turning  back  again  to  Greece,  we  have  to  consider  a  poeti- 
cal development  more  intimately  and  directly  connected  with 
the  history  of  religion  than  was  the  case  with  most  of  the  great 
epic  poems.  We  may  recognize  that  the  gods  of  the  Iliad  were 
those  of  Olympus,  and  the  religious  traditions  contained  in  it 
were  those  of  the  migrations,  that  is,  the  coming  into  Greece  of 
those  northern  peoples  who  settled  on  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor, 
in  the  Peloponnesus,  and  in  other  parts  of  the  islands  and  main- 
land. These  peoples  brought  with  them  legends  of  an  Olympian 
pantheon,  though  these  grew  and  expanded  greatly  after  they 
settled  down  in  Greece.  They  were  in  the  patriarchal  stage  of 
social  development,  were  warlike  and  heroic  in  their  customs 
and  in  their  legends.  The  peoples  they  found  in  the  country 
were  more  primitive,  may  have  come  originally  from  northern 
Africa,  had  their  chief  center  of  development  in  Crete,  and 
were  known  as  Pelasgians.  Although  that  name  now  has  no 
very  definite  meaning,  and  has  been  largely  superseded  by  the 
use  of  the  words  Aegean  and  Minoan,  which  mainly  refer  to  the 
phases  of  the  recent  archaeological  discoveries,  the  use  of  that 
word  is  sometimes  retained.  This  early  people  or  peoples  was 

[94] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

doubtless  in  the  matriarchal  period  of  development,  traces  of 
which  remained  here  and  there  to  quite  late  periods  in  Greek 
history  and  religion. 

We  do  not  know  precisely  in  what  manner  the  legends  con- 
nected with  this  early  phase  of  Greek  life  and  religion  were 
related  to  those  of  Babylonia,  Syria,  Asia  Minor  or  Anatolia, 
Crete  and  Egypt.  What  appears  to  be  true  is,  that  these  coun- 
tries of  the  eastern  Mediterranean  basin  had  in  many  respects 
the  same  legends  and  the  same  religious  rites.  The  Greeks  are 
recognized  as  borrowing  and  assimilating  those  of  the  other 
neighboring  lands,  thereby  considerably  expanding  their  own 
pantheon  and  their  religious  ceremonies  and  festivals. 

Although  the  Olympic  gods  and  rituals  are  usually  as- 
sumed to  be  those  the  most  distinctly  Greek,  it  must  now  be 
recognized  that  these  came  in  with  the  migrations  from  the 
north.  They  were  more  distinctly  feudal  and  aristocratic,  as 
well  as  patriarchal,  than  those  of  the  peoples  they  conquered 
or  superseded  in  the  Greek  lands.  The  primitive  religion, 
whether  we  call  it  Pelasgian  or  Aegean,  was  more  distinctly 
agrarian  and  matriarchal  than  that  of  the  invaders.  That  is, 
these  peoples  had  begun  the  cultivation  of  the  soil,  and  their 
religion  circled  about  the  need  for  the  fertility  of  the  land  they 
cultivated.  They  worshipped  Father  Heaven  and  Mother  Earth, 
and  their  gods  were  largely  of  the  feminine  type,  august  and 
loving  mothers.  Their  rituals  celebrated  the  coming  of  spring, 
when  seeds  could  be  placed  in  the  ground,  and  when  all  green 
things  sprang  out  of  the  earth.  They  conceived  animistically 
this  upspringing  of  life  as  a  maiden,  beautiful  and  most  attrac- 
tive, bearer  of  children,  and  yet  remaining  virgin.  In  many  of 
the  legends  she  had  with  her  a  son,  who  became  in  some  way 
her  husband  also.  This  is  myth,  and  is  not  to  be  assumed  to 
reflect  Pelasgian  custom  at  any  primitive  period.  Then  the 

[95] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

autumn  was  personified  as  the  mother  of  the  younger  goddess, 
and  her  worship  and  festivals  were  connected  with  the  harvesting 
of  the  products  of  the  gardens  and  fields,  orchards  and  vineyards. 
Since  these  peoples  buried  their  dead  in  the  earth,  and  since 
the  products  of  their  cultivation  sprang  from  the  earth  also, 
the  two  processes  were  intimately  connected.  The  cult  of  the 
fields  and  the  cult  of  the  dead  were  related  to  each  other,  and 
the  fertility  of  the  fields  depended  on  the  presence  of  the  divine 
mother  in  the  world  of  growing  things.  In  the  myths  of  the 
Sun-goddess  in  Japan,  Ishtar  in  Babylonia  and  Syria,  and  of 
Demeter  in  Greece,  their  descent  into  the  lower  world  or  their 
withdrawal  from  the  upper  world,  caused  the  cessation  of  all 
fertility  to  fields,  animals  and  men.  The  fertility  of  the  earth 
and  that  of  woman  were  also  the  same  essentially,  and  what 
hindered  the  one  lessened  the  other. 

The  gods  and  the  rites  of  this  more  primitive  religion  do 
not  to  any  extent  appear  in  the  Iliad  and  the  Odyssey.  The 
latter  belonged  to  the  Olympic  cycle,  and  are  fundamentally  pa- 
triarchal and  feudal.  The  other  cycle  is  agricultural,  matriar- 
chal, and  primitive.  The  rites  are  those  connected  with  mother- 
hood and  agrarian  life.  Since  much  of  the  intimacy  resulting 
from  the  burial  of  the  dead  in  the  earth  and  its  cultivation  for 
the  producing  of  plants  and  fruits,  suggest  for  them  a  common 
origin  and  influence,  this  agrarian  religion  was  largely  con- 
cerned with  the  dead  and  their  interests.  The  rites  were  at 
once  agricultural,  to  insure  good  crops,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
to  provide  for  the  denizens  of  the  underworld,  which  was  below 
the  soil,  in  the  bosom  of  the  earth.  The  Pelasgian  religion 
found  the  world  of  the  dead  below,  the  Olympian  above  in  the 
sky  or  in  some  far  western  region  beyond  the  setting  of  the  sun. 
The  rites  connected  with  the  dead  reflected  these  two  concep- 
tions of  the  abode  of  the  ghosts. 

[96] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

The  Pelasgian  rites  and  festivals  were  the  results  of  the 
combination  of  these  two  orders  of  experience  and  thought.  They 
sought  the  fertility  of  the  earth,  and  they  also  aimed  at  pro- 
tecting the  interests  of  those  who  had  passed  into  the  world  of 
the  dead.  Out  of  this  combination  of  interests  came  what  is 
known  as  the  ' '  mysteries, "  rites  having  these  two  objects  more 
or  less  in  view  in  their  performance.  The  myths  resulting  were 
those  growing  largely  out  of  the  animistic  conception  of  nature, 
the  personification  of  the  perfected  life  of  the  year  as  a  Divine 
Mother,  and  the  uprising  of  nature  in  the  springtime  as  a  Divine 
Maid.  The  snatching  of  the  Maid  from  the  mother  by  the  god 
of  the  underworld,  as  in  the  myth  of  Demeter  and  Kora  or  Per- 
sephone, is  but  a  method  of  defining  the  relations  of  the  world 
of  man's  daily  interests  to  the  natural  round  of  the  seasons. 
In  some  of  the  more  eastern  phases  of  this  cult,  as  it  is  found 
in  Syria,  for  instance,  winter  appears  as  a  youth  slain  when 
the  spring  returns,  and  for  the  rescue  of  whom  the  mother  or 
wife  goes  down  into  the  underworld  to  secure  his  return.  In 
the  Greek  myth,  as  found  in  the  Theogony  of  Hesiod,  Ge  or 
Gaia  is  the  earth,  the  broad-bosomed  one.  Many  of  the  other 
goddesses  also,  in  one  or  another  degree,  represent  the  earth, 
as  is  true  of  Demeter,  Hera,  Athena,  Artemis  and  Aphrodite. 
The  earth  is  often  regarded  as  the  Mother  of  the  Gods,  the  All- 
Mother,  and  as  the  primary  source  of  the  whole  creation.  These 
same  goddesses,  however,  take  on  other  characteristics,  and  may 
have  another  origin  attributed  to  them.  For  instance,  Demeter 
is  sometimes  represented  as  the  ploughed  field  or  as  the  furrow 
in  that  field.  She  is,  therefore,  intimately  connected  with  the 
processes  of  the  cultivation  of  the  earth,  sometimes  being  re- 
garded as  the  cereals  cultivated,  and  especially  wheat  and  bar- 
ley. Since  the  English  give  the  general  name  of  corn  to  these 
cereals,  Demeter  is  sometimes  known  as  the  Corn-Mother.  Per- 

[97] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

sephone  is  the  young  plant  as  Demeter  is  the  ripened  corn. 
Demeter,  however,  ranges  through  the  whole  world  of  cultiva- 
tion, and  she  is  often  the  personification  of  all  vegetation  and 
fruits,  and  is  not  less  intimately  connected  with  pastoral  life 
and  the  domesticated  animals.  Kore  or  Persephone,  although 
connected  with  the  upspringing  plant,  and  with  the  shoot 
bursting  out  of  the  earth,  owing  to  her  rape  by  Pluto  or  Hades, 
is  also  connected  with  the  lower  world,  in  which  she  spends  a 
part  of  each  year,  that  in  which  plant  life  cannot  exist. 

What  we  are  most  concerned  with  here,  however,  is  the 
higher  phases  of  these  myths,  those  which  link  them  with  the 
Pelasgian  developments  of  Greek  religion.  These  were  in  large 
degree  superseded  by  the  Olympian  pantheon,  its  rituals  and 
its  beliefs,  during  a  considerable  period;  but,  when  the  belief 
in  Zeus  lost  its  power,  there  was  a  revival  of  the  old  Pelasgian 
rituals  and  beliefs  in  a  new  form.  It  is  true  that  the  agrarian 
festivals  and  rituals  never  wholly  died  out,  but  now  they  came 
back  with  an  added  suggestiveness  and  with  a  far  broader 
meaning.  The  tribal  social  development  had  broken  down  or 
disappeared  in  the  course  of  time,  and  there  was  a  demand  for 
something  to  take  its  place,  which  in  part  was  afforded  by  the 
guilds  or  orgeones.  More  especially,  however,  as  connected 
with  religion,  there  was  a  large  growth  of  the  Dionysian  rites 
which  provided  something  in  the  way  of  satisfaction  to  the 
emotional  nature,  in  its  ecstacy,  and  its  personal  inspiration 
from  the  god. 

What  became  most  important  in  this  development  was 
the  Eleusinian  Mysteries,  their  impressive  symbolisms,  their 
initiations  into  a  form  of  life  preparatory  for  the  other  world, 
their  majestic  dramatic  presentation  of  the  adventures  of  the 
goddesses,  and  their  assurance  of  the  forgiveness  of  sins  and 
entrance  upon  the  higher  life  when  death  presents  itself.  The 

[98] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

basis  of  these  mysteries  was  found  in  the  old  nature-worships, 
which  had  been  transformed,  added  to  from  foreign  sources, 
and  grown  into  great  rituals  of  initiation  into  the  world  of  the 
gods,  and  assurance  that  by  means  of  them  immortality  was 
made  certain  to  all  the  initiated.  Since  an  expanded  exposition 
of  these  cults  may  be  found  in  the  works  of  Frazer,  Farnell, 
Harrison,  and  many  other  writers  on  Greek  religion,  it  is  not 
desirable  to  attempt  any  account  of  them  here. 

The  mysteries,  without  doubt,  had  a  considerable  influ- 
ence in  the  evolution  of  the  Christian  church  and  in  the  forma- 
tion of  its  theology.  Traces  of  them  may  be  found  in  many  parts 
of  western  Europe,  and  even  in  so  remote  a  region  as  Ireland. 
As  indicating  the  degree  to  which  such  rituals  and  myths  may 
survive,  and  the  great  number  and  degree  of  the  transforma- 
tions through  which  they  may  pass  as  they  proceed  in  their 
development,  and  in  the  accession  of  other  and,  related  ceremo- 
nials and  legends,  it  may  be  noted  that  Jessie  L.  Weston,  in  her 
paper  on  The  Grail  and  the  Rites  of  Adonis,  published  in  Folk- 
Lore  during  1907,  and  more  fully  interpreted  in  her  two  vol- 
umes devoted  to  The  Legend  of  Perceval,  published  in  1906,  is 
of  the  opinion  that  the  legend  of  the  Holy  Grail  had  its  origin 
in  the  customs  connected  with  the  Syrian  myth  of  Adonis. 
This  myth  interpreted  the  succession  of  the  seasons,  the  growth 
of  plant  life,  and  the  symbolisms  which  grew  out  of  these.  In 
the  tenth  chapter  of  the  Perceval  volume  Weston  says  of  the 
origin  of  the  symbolisms  of  the  Grail: 

"The  incidents  of  the  story;  the  dead  body  on  the  bier, 
with  its  pomp  of  ritual  accessories,  the  weeping  women  (who 
figure  persistently  throughout  the  Grail  story) ;  the  common- 
feast  with  a  mysterious  vessel ;  the  question  as  to  the  significance 
and  use  of  which  results  in  the  restoration  of  vegetation  to  a 
land  waste  by  reason  of  the  death  of  him  who  lies  on  the  bier 

[99] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

(whose  identity  is  never  declared) ;  all  suggested  the  rites  cele- 
brated in  honor  of  the  god  of  vegetation,  known  in  different 
lands  by  different  names — Tammuz,  Osiris,  Attis,  Adonis. 

"In  these  rites  the  death  of  the  god,  and  resultant  death 
of  vegetation,  were  mourned  with  solemn  ritual  in  which  wo- 
men took  a  prominent  part;  with  his  restoration  to  life  fruit- 
fulness  was  restored  to  the  earth.  Not  merely  did  the  incidents 
correspond,  but  also  the  object  of  those  incidents;  it  is  a  par- 
allel alike  of  action  and  intention." 

As  is  pointed  out  by  this  interpreter  of  the  Holy  Grail, 
much  of  the  Grail  ritual  and  legend  turns  around  the  eucharis- 
tic  nature  of  the  Grail  legend,  that  is,  the  eating  and  drinking 
of  the  products  of  nature  as  containing  the  qualities  and  vir- 
tues of  the  god.  In  this  manner  the  worshipper  takes  into  his 
being  the  virtues  and  the  powers  of  the  god,  and  he  is  made 
godlike,  at  least  for  the  time.  This  phase  of  many  of  the  older 
cults  was  taken  up  by  Christianity,  and  finds  a  striking  ex- 
pression in  the  Grail  narratives.  The  slaying  of  the  god  of 
vegetation  also  connects  itself  with  the  crucifixion  of  Christ 
and  with  that  which  resulted  therefrom. 

It  has  been  suggested  by  William  A.  Nitze,  in  a  paper 
appearing  in  the  Publications  of  the  Modern  Language  Associa- 
tion for  1909,  under  the  title  of  The  Fisher  King  in  the  Grail 
Romances,  that  the  Holy  Grail  had  its  origin  in  the  Eleusinian 
Mysteries  or  in  that  worship  of  the  productive  powers  of  nature 
symbolically  presented  in  that  dramatic  representation  of  the 
adventures  of  the  goddesses.  He  gives  a  quite  elaborate  account 
of  the  resemblances  between  the  ancient  myth  and  the  mediaeval 
legend.  After  describing  the  mysteries  at  Eleusis,  as  well  as 
those  connected  with  the  worship  of  Osiris,  he  carefully  inter- 
prets the  Grail  legends.  If  he  does  not  demonstrate  a  survival 
and  greatly  modified  form  of  the  Eleusinia,  yet  he  makes  out 

[100] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF, 


a  very  strong  case  for  that  conclusion.  The  resemblances  are 
too  numerous  and  too  intimate  to  be  ignored,  and  make  it  most 
probable  that  in  the  Holy  Grail  we  have  a  mediaeval  form  of 
the  much  older  vegetation  festivals  and  rituals.  The  probabil- 
ity is  that  the  survival  is  from  the  mysteries  of  Eleusis  rather 
than  from  the  myth  of  Adonis,  though  the  two  have  many  very 
close  connections. 

"The  Holy  Grail,'"  says  Nitze,  "by  the  mediaeval  ro- 
mancers often  conceived  in  terms  of  a  quest,  is  au  fond  an  initia- 
tion, the  purpose  of  which  is  to  ensure  the  life  of  the  vegetation 
spirit,  always  in  danger  of  extinction,  and  to  admit  the  'quali- 
fied' mortal  into  its  mystery.  I  do  not  believe  we  can  go  far 
wrong  in  insisting  on  both  its  agrarian  and  its  mystic  features. 
For  though  both  may  be  present  to  the  same  degree  in  the  ro- 
mances in  which  the  ceremony  has  been  handed  down,  it  is  at 
present  difficult  to  state  where  the  one  feature  ceases  and  the 
other  begins.  Like  the  Eleusinia,  the  Grail  rites  may  have  been 
agrarian  and  mystic  from  the  start." 

Nitze  points  out  that  the  Fisher  King  of  the  Grail  legends 
is  the  symbol  of  the  creative,  fructifying  force  in  nature,  es- 
pecially associated  with  water  or  moisture.  As  a  representative 
of  the  otherworld,  he  is  the  guide  to  it.  The  Grail  knight, 
whether  Perceval,  Bors,  Galahad,  Gawain,  is  the  initiate.  He 
must  specially  qualify  in  order  to  become  such,  and  it  is  he  who 
is  responsible  for  the  success  of  the  Grail  service.  The  father 
of  the  Fisher  King  is  his  double,  and  stands  for  the  life-god 
himself.  As  in  the  case  of  Adonis,  Dionysos,  and  Osiris,  he 
lies  dead  on  the  bier,  with  a  sword  by  his  side.  The  Grail, 
sometimes  called  the  Rich  Grail,  is  essentially  the  same  as  the 
kiste  or  holy  box  of  the  mysteries,  and  is  the  receptacle  for  the  di- 
vine food,  the  wafer  or  the  blood,  through  the  partaking  of  which 
the  mortal  comes  into  communion  with  the  god,  and  a  bloodbond 

[101] 


SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

is  established  between  them.  ' '  Thus  it  comes  naturally  to  possess 
talismanic  properties,"  says  Nitze,  " primarily  providing  food, 
but  also  preserving  from  disease  and  decay,  distinguishing  the 
faithful  from  the  sinners,  and  even  ensuring  victory  in  battle. 
This  leads  by  easy  stages  to  its  identification  in  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury, through  the  medium  of  the  holy  blood  legend,  with  the 
relic  of  Calvary,  and  thence  with  the  cup  of  the  Last  Supper. " 
The  lance  is  the  instrument  of  sacrifices,  which  is  vicarious. 
The  lance  and  the  sword  have  no  direct  connection  with  the 
mysteries,  but  they  have  been  borrowed  from  other  western 
legends  and  myths.  The  final  conclusion  at  which  Nitze  has 
arrived  he  has  stated  in  these  words:  " Though  the  Grail  cere- 
monies and  the  ancient  mysteries  have  the  same  leit-motiv,  there 
exists  no  reason  for  claiming  any  direct  connection  with  them. 
While  the  fundamental  concept  of  the  Fisher  King  is  doubtless 
a  Mediterranean  cult,  it  is  quite  possible  that  in  the  Grail  ro- 
mances it  descends  in  direct  line  from  the  primitive  Celts  in 
Gaul,  Wales,  and  Ireland.  As  we  have  seen,  the  underlying 
fact  is  the  identification  of  Life  and  Fertility  with  the  creative 
power  of  moisture — and  this  idea  is  well-nigh  universal. ' ' 

Whether  the  Grail  legend  descended  more  or  less  directly 
from  the  Greek  mysteries,  or  whether  it  had  a  more  definite  ori- 
gin in  Celtic  myth,  it  is  evident  that  the  same  ideas,  the  same 
ritual  motives,  are  to  be  found  in  the  two.  It  is  impossible, 
however,  to  dismiss  the  conclusion  that  the  mysteries,  as  ritual 
romances  and  legends  of  initiation,  were  passed  down  through 
the  centuries,  and  reappeared  in  the  legends  of  the  Holy  Grail. 
At  first  the  Grail  legends  were  regarded  by  the  Christian  church 
as  pagan  and  heretic,  and  were  shunned  or  condemned.  So  per- 
sistent were  they,  however,  that  they  were  slowly  Christianized 
and  adopted  into  the  extra  faiths  of  the  church.  They  took  on, 
at  last,  a  distinctly  Christian  character,  and  have  so  been  inter- 

[102] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

preted  by  all  their  recent  expounders,  including  their  use  by 
Richard  Wagner  in  his  music-dramas. 

What  stands  out  most  emphatically  in  both  the  Mysteries 
and  the  Grail  legends  is  their  slow  growth,  and  their  develop- 
ment through  many  centuries.  It  cannot  be  supposed  that  the 
Dionysia  or  the  Eleusinia,  in  their  cult  or  ritual  form,  and  in 
the  form  of  the  myths  connected  with  them,  were  the  products 
of  any  one  or  any  number  of  gifted  Greeks.  No  one  has  put 
forth  such  a  theory,  but  every  interpretation  of  them  at  least 
tacitly  assumes  that  they  "grew  as  grows  the  grass,"  to  use 
Emerson 's  word  in  regard  to  such  creations,  which  means  that 
they  were  age-long  social  developments,  the  products  of  the 
collective  genius  of  the  people  of  the  Greek  lands. 

We  cannot  suppose  that  it  was  otherwise  with  the  Grail 
legends  and  romances.  We  know  that  these  were  interpreted  by 
one  or  another  poet  or  prose  narrator;  but  behind  their  works 
appears  the  more  important  and  more  highly  creative  genius 
of  the  legend  itself.  Although  it  doubtless  had  its  inciting  mo- 
tives in  the  great  nature-myths  and  mysteries  of  the  eastern 
Mediterranean  peoples,  we  cannot  for  a  moment  suppose  that 
the  Celtic  or  the  Teutonic  peoples  were  less  capable  of  creating 
myths  and  mysteries  to  fit  their  own  conceptions  of  the  world  and 
of  life.  If  the  western  peoples  received  traditional  hints  and 
stimuli  from  the  Greeks  and  the  others,  they  were  quite  compe- 
tent to  produce  equally  valuable  creations,  as  is  seen  in  the 
northern  sagas,  the  Nibelungun-lied,  and  many  another  ballad 
or  epic  production.  Their  myths,  though  less  highly  elaborated, 
did  not  attain  the  same  poetical  perfection;  but  this  may  have 
been  the  result  of  the  incoming  of  Christianity  before  their  full 
development  had  had  an  opportunity  of  being  reached. 

[103] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

X 

No  one  has  as  yet  made  it  quite  clear  how  it  is  that  indi- 
vidual and  communal  genius  succeed  in  working  together  or  how 
we  are  to  reconcile  personal  and  collective  processes  of  develop- 
ment. It  is  the  fashion  now  to  assume  that  all  invention,  dis- 
covery and  creation  are  results  of  individual  talent  or  genius. 
A  study  of  the  culture-growth  of  the  early  ages,  and  especially 
those  forms  of  it  expressed  in  the  evolution  of  religion,  does 
not  by  any  means  confirm  this  judgment.  Quite  the  contrary, 
it  nearly  compels  us  to  accept  the  theory  of  a  group  mind,  a 
collective  soul;  and  that  all  true  creation  comes  from  the  com- 
munal activities  of  mankind. 

Most  of  the  great  creations  of  the  early  world,  in  the  form 
of  myths,  hymns,  rituals,  laws,  have  no  personal  names  attached 
to  them.  This  may,  of  course,  be  because  history  had  not  yet 
begun;  but  even  after  the  definite  beginnings  of  writing  and 
history,  the  situation  is  much  the  same.  We  may  be  referred  to 
Moses,  to  Homer,  and  to  Manu;  but  these  names  are  almost  as 
mythical  as  the  stories  contained  in  the  books  with  which  their 
names  are  connected.  The  higher  critics  in  regard  to  all  early 
literatures,  not  only  religious,  but  poetical  and  historical,  as 
well,  do  not  justify  us  in  insisting  on  the  attaching  of  per- 
sonal names  to  the  Rig- Veda,  to  the  myths  of  Babylonia,  Syria, 
Egypt  or  Greece,  or  to  such  poetical  collections  as  the  Mahab- 
harata,  the  Nibelungun-lied,  and  many  another  work  of  the 
same  kind. 

It  may  be  that  we  shall  never  settle  satisfactorily  to  all 
persons  such  problems  as  these;  but  we  cannot  doubt  that  there 
was  something  at  work  in  the  early  ages  by  means  of  which 
myths,  tales,  legends,  rituals,  and  religions,  were  developed  on 
the  part  of  rude  peoples,  and  even  by  those  races  which  had  ad- 
vanced considerably  in  culture.  We  cannot  question  the  fact 

[104] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF   RELIGION 

that  the  myths  of  Babylonia,  Egypt,  and  Greece,  were  wonder- 
ful creations.  We  are  not  disposed  to  question  the  fact  that  the 
religions  of  India,  Persia,  Syria,  and  Arabia  had  in  them  ele- 
ments of  great  advancement  for  the  peoples  by  whom  they  were 
created,  and  by  whom  they  were  received  as  revelations  from  the 
gods.  If  we  deny  to  these  peoples  the  gifts  of  inspiration  and 
revelation,  as  the  Christian  theologians  are  in  the  habit  of  doing, 
how  shall  we  account  for  these  marvellous  productions?  In  the 
sheer  weight  of  mental  power  they  manifest  they  must  claim 
candid  consideration  as  human  productions,  and  our  admiration 
for  the  loftiness  and  the  greatness  of  the  tales  they  tell,  and  the 
morality  they  inculcate.  It  is  not  enough  to  say  that  they  were 
the  inventions  of  priests,  as  was  the  custom  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  or  that  they  are  mere  delusions  of  the  corrupted  mind, 
as  is  too  often  the  case  in  our  own  day.  Rejecting  the  theory 
that  Homer  created  the  Greek  myths,  as  the  prodigious  result 
of  his  personal  genius,  what  shall  we  say  of  those  mythological 
creations  which  have  come  to  us  from  the  world  of  the  ancient 
Greeks  ? 

The  answer  to  this  query,  and  to  the  problem  as  to  the 
origin  of  the  many  religious  developments  throughout  the 
world  in  all  ages,  that  many  persons  have  found  to  be  most 
satisfactory,  is  that  expressed  by  the  conception  of  a  group 
mind  or  a  collective  soul.  Behind  all  individual  genius  is  some- 
thing greater,  more  creative,  more  powerful,  more  intimately 
in  touch  with  the  sources  of  life ;  and  this  is  the  collective  mind. 
We  may  say  of  all  the  mythologies  and  religions  we  have  re- 
ferred to,  that  they  have  grown  out  of  the  life  of  man  in  his 
communal  relations.  The  gods  of  these  peoples  are  reflections 
of  the  communities  who  create  them,  not  merely  of  their  highest 
personal  life,  but  of  their  group  life.  In  a  word,  the  gods  of 
the  Navaho,  as  of  the  Greeks,  were  intimately  and  essentially 

[105] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

reflections  of  the  collective  life  of  these  peoples,  projected  into 
the  earth  or  into  the  heavens  in  the  form  of  the  divine  beings 
they  worshipped  in  ritual,  and  interpreted  in  myth.  The  myths 
recited  the  doings  of  the  gods,  which  in  minute  degree  were 
the  doings  of  these  peoples  themselves,  not,  it  may  be,  as  their 
lives  were  actually  lived  individually  from  day  to  day,  but  as 
the  community  aspired  to  live,  and  therefore  prayed  to  their 
higher  selves,  as  embodied  in  the  rituals  and  the  myths,  that 
they  might  in  future  be  able  to  live  out  their  communal 
existence. 

What  may  impress  us  in  the  history  of  religion,  as  in  the 
connected  and  interrelated  developments  of  literature  and  art, 
is  the  greatness  and  the  majesty  of  the  creative  power  of  the 
communal  mind.  It  may  be  an  extravagant  conception  to 
entertain,  but  one  may  be  more  and  more  impressed,  as  he 
comes  into  more  intimate  knowledge  of  the  processes  by  means 
of  which  culture  and  civilization  have  been  gradually  devel- 
oped, with  the  marvellous  inventiveness  of  man  in  his  collective 
capacity  to  create  myths,  religions,  and  poems  of  the  highest 
art.  The  really  creative  mind  in  all  ages  is  the  collective  mind, 
though  it  may  always  work  in  harmony  with  personal  genius. 
"What  we  are  to  consider  is,  that  the  creative  mind  is  still  deal- 
ing with  the  problems  of  religion,  and  that  greater  things  are 
yet  to  break  forth  from  this  creative  source.  What  it  has  done 
in  the  past  it  can  accomplish  again  in  the  future.  It  has 
brought  into  existence  all  religions  now  known  to  us,  and  it 
can  create  truer  and  nobler  ones  in  the  future. 

This  leads  us  to  the  conclusion  that  most  of  the  religious 
inspiration  to  be  found  in  the  history  of  mankind,  and  all  of 
the  revelation,  is  of  this  collective  nature.  The  Sacred  Books 
of  the  East,  as  of  all  other  parts  of  the  world,  had  their  origin 
in  the  period  when  the  communal  life  was  strong  and  vigorous. 

[106] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

While  the  epics,  and  many  another  work  having  its  origin  in 
the  creative  capacities  of  the  collective  mind,  cannot  be  re- 
garded as  being  possessed  of  the  nature  of  revelation,  yet  these 
books  often  have  the  qualities  attributed  to  sacred  literature. 
All  works  for  which  a  sacred  character  has  been  claimed,  from 
the  Navaho  ritual  to  the  New  Testament  of  the  Christians, 
have  on  them  this  character  of  collective  power.  They  are 
profoundly  emotional,  are  marked  by  an  elevation  of  thought, 
and  speak  as  from  a  deep  subconscious  insight  into  the  world 
beyond  the  immediate  vision  of  individual  man. 

In  recent  years  both  inspiration  and  revelation  have  been 
referred  by  many  thinkers  to  the  subconscious  activities  of  the 
mind.  This  phase  of  human  activity  gains  greatly  in  its  sig- 
nificance when  it  is  interpreted  from  the  collective,  and  not 
merely  from  the  individual,  sources  as  to  its  origin  and  nature. 
Its  loftiness  of  expression,  its  sublimity  of  thought,  its  pro- 
fundity of  emotional  insight,  all  give  to  such  works  an  im- 
pressiveness  and  a  grandeur  which  bring  to  them  the  weight 
and  the  worth  of  an  assumed  revelation.  If  they  are  often 
trivial,  bearing  about  them  the  marks  of  their  early  origin  and 
their  crude  views  of  nature  and  of  human  life,  as  well  as  much 
of  moral  grossness,  yet  they  have  a  daring  assurance  in  regard 
to  the  nature  of  the  supernatural  world,  and  a  confident  tone 
with  regard  to  God  and  immortality,  which  appeal  with  con- 
vincing power  to  those  who  have  been  educated  to  accept  their 
sacred  character.  All  of  this,  without  doubt,  they  owe  to  their 
communal  origin,  to  the  fact  that  they  are  creations  of  the 
collective  mind. 

The  question  may  arise  as  to  whether,  with  such  an  origin, 
these  sacred  books  can  be  regarded  as  in  any  real  sense  answer- 
ing to  the  conception  of  revelation.  In  the  old  sense  the  reply 
must  be  in  the  negative ;  but  with  the  modern  conception  of  the 

[107] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

creative  power  of  collective  man,  we  need  not  hesitate  to 
answer  in  the  affirmitive.  It  is  no  individual  judgment,  no 
personal  conception  of  life  and  its  greater  meanings,  which  we 
have  in  these  works;  but  something  really  great  and  stimulat- 
ing because  of  the  nature  of  their  origin.  In  their  origin  we 
find  their  sanction  and  their  worth,  their  capacity  to  invigora- 
ate  the  mind  and  to  satisfy  the  heart,  this  origin  being  that  of 
the  social  consciousness  in  all  its  breadth  and  might.  This  is 
the  real  meaning  of  revelation,  whatever  the  claims  made  by 
tradition,  or  in  the  name  of  supernatural  communication.  Such 
an  interpretation  of  it  may  take  away  something  of  the  old 
dogmatic  spirit  connected  with  the  idea  of  a  revelation  direct 
from  God;  but  it  fits  more  adequately  into  the  demands  of  the 
present  day,  and  gives  a  fresh  meaning  to  the  sacred  books  of 
the  world.  It  explains  their  puerilities,  their  superstitions  and 
their  credulities,  as  well  as  their  gross  moral  conceptions. 
At  the  same  time  it  explains  the  relations  of  the  sacred  books 
to  the  developing  culture  and  civilization  of  mankind. 


[108] 


CHAPTER  III 

Communal  and  Tribal  Religion 

TWO  influences  were  at  work  in  the  origin  and  early  devel- 
opments of  religion.  The  first  of  these  is  to  be  found  in 
the  nature  of  man,  in  the  relations  of  the  body  and  the  mind, 
in  the  functioning  of  what  we  call  the  objective  and  the  sub- 
jective. Probably  from  the  very  first  man  recognized  in  some 
crude  way  this  duality  of  his  nature,  that  the  mind  functioned 
in  one  manner  and  the  body  in  another.  He  must  have  had 
some  dim  comprehension  that  his  own  inward  life  was  other 
than  that  of  nature  or  the  world  of  his  environment.  From 
the  time  that  he  was  able  to  make  any  definite  use  of  language 
he  must  have  had  at  least  a  feeble  comprehension  of  this  dou- 
bleness  of  his  being;  but  could  not  apprehend  their  ultimate 
unity. 

The  other  influence  which  worked  for  the  creation  of  re- 
ligion was  the  communal  or  gregarious  nature  of  his  life  as  a 
social  being.  At  no  period  since  man  became  man  has  he  lived 
in  other  than  a  social  world,  a  world  bounded  by  the  limits  of 
a  food-group,  it  may  be ;  but  a  world  in  which  he  was  one  of 
a  community,  a  fellowship,  a  corporate  body  of  friends  and 
relations.  It  was  pertinently  said  by  George  Henry  Lewes,  in 
the  first  volume  of  The  Foundations  of  a  Creed,  that  all  at- 
tempts to  explain  mind  without  taking  the  social  functions 
into  account  have  been  signal  failures ;  and  it  may  be  said  with 
equal  truth,  that  any  attempt  to  explain  religion  without  re- 
cognizing the  social  functioning  of  all  human  life  is  doomed 

[109] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

to  miss  the  mark  of  sound  reasoning  on  a  great  subject.  Re- 
ligion is  one  of  the  phases  of  man's  sociality,  a  result  of  his 
living  invariably  as  a  member  of  a  human  community.  At 
first  he  does  not  think  his  own  religion,  but  feels  it;  it  comes 
to  him  as  an  emotional  manifestation  of  the  fact  of  his  human 
fellowship.  The  fellowship  gives  him  his  religion  as  a  child, 
impresses  it  upon  him,  makes  it  a  primary  phase  of  his  exist- 
ence. If  we  could  conceive  of  him  as  living  apart  from  a  so- 
cial fellowship,  we  should  also  be  obliged  to  think  of  him  as 
without  religion. 

Man  as  having  a  duality  of  nature  in  the  form  of  mind  and 
body,  and  man  as  living  in  a  communal  fellowship  with  his 
kind,  these  two  forces  must  explain  for  us  the  origin  of  reli- 
gion, and  the  earliest  phases  of  its  development.  However  any 
of  its  manifestations  are  given,  they  are  invariably  socialized 
for  the  primitive  man,  for  the  reason  that  his  life  is  a  life  of 
fellowship  —  a  limited  fellowship,  it  is  true,  but  one  that 
creates  and  dominates  his  mental  being. 


The  study  of  the  most  primitive  of  existing  peoples  has 
led  to  the  conclusion  that  early  man  must  have  thought  of  all 
other  beings  and  things  in  the  world  as  having  like  nature 
with  himself.  In  precisely  what  manner  he  regarded  his  own 
being  we  do  not  know,  but  we  surmise  that  he  realized  in  a 
faint  way  that  there  was  in  him  something  not  seen,  —  in- 
tangible, subtle,  ethereal.  These  words,  of  course,  he  did  not 
know,  or  what  they  represent  to  us;  but  there  came  to  him  a 
dim  perception  of  what  we  regard  them  as  representing.  He 
came  to  this  conclusion  as  the  result  of  his  dream  experiences, 
his  observations  of  the  shadow,  echo,  reflection  as  in  water, 

[110] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

breath,  and  eye-image.  All  of  these  made  him  think  of  some- 
thing in  him  which  is  not  of  the  body,  and  of  a  shadowy  but 
material  nature.  When  he  dreamed  he  found  himself  in  places 
distant  from  where  his  body  was  resting,  and  he  met  those  he 
knew  were  not  in  his  immediate  vicinity,  and  even  those  who 
had  been  dead  for  months  or  years.  To  him  these  experiences 
in  dreams  seemed  as  real  as  those  of  the  waking  life,  and  he 
could  but  conclude  that  they  were  of  as  true  a  nature.  This 
conclusion  was  confirmed  by  his  shadow,  which  followed  him 
almost  constantly,  especially  in  regions  where  sunshine  is 
nearly  uninterrupted.  The  echo  suggested  that  there  was 
some  one  unseen  in  his  vicinity,  who  could  speak  to  him  or 
answer  his  call.  Looking  in  the  eyes  of  his  companions  he  saw 
there  an  image  of  a  man,  very  small,  but  having  all  the  char- 
acteristics of  a  human  being  as  known  to  sight.  His  breath, 
too,  was  something  on  which  his  life  seemed  to  depend,  some- 
thing unseen,  but  vital;  and  suggestive  of  the  same  kind  of 
being  as  that  given  in  the  dream-experiences. 

Many  of  the  aborigines  of  North  America,  it  is  well  known, 
make  use  of  the  dream  in  determining  to  which  of  their  several 
societies  they  shall  belong;  and  these  societies  often  originate 
in  dream  experiences.  The  dream  was  announced  to  the  tribe, 
by  means  of  a  performance  which  indicated  its  nature;  and  it 
allied  the  dreamer  to  those  who  had  received  similar  dreams. 
Very  frequently  the  dreams  related  to  animals,  and  those  who 
had  dreamed  of  the  same  animal  belonged  to  the  society  of 
which  this  animal  was  the  patron  or  guardian.  The  character 
of  such  dreams  about  animals,  and  the  character  of  the  so- 
cieties which  resulted,  have  been  described  in  a  recent  bulletin, 
number  61,  of  the  Bureau  of  American  Ethnology,  being  Teton 
Sioux  Music,  by  Frances  Densmore. 

We  are  told  by  Densmore  that  "the  obligation  of  a  dream 

[111] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

was  as  binding  as  the  necessity  of  fulfilling  a  vow,  and  disre- 
gard of  either  was  said  to  be  punished  by  the  forces  of  nature, 
usually  by  a  stroke  of  lightning. ' '  The  same  writer  informs  us 
that  many  of  the  songs  were  produced  in  dreams,  and  the  old- 
est songs  were  thus  composed.  "This  means  that  they  came 
in  a  supposedly  supernatural  manner  to  the  mind  of  a  man 
who  was  hoping  for  such  experiences  and  who  had  established 
the  mental  and  physical  conditions  under  which  they  were  be- 
lieved to  occur.  In  this  we  have  the  native  concept  of  what 
we  call  'inspiration.'  The  Indian  isolated  himself  by  going 
away  from  the  camp,  while  the  white  musician  or  poet  locks 
his  door ;  but  both  realize  the  necessity  of  freedom  from  distrac- 
tion. A  majority  of  the  songs  said  to  have  been  thus  received 
by  the  Indians  have  a  rhythmic  and  melodic  unity  which  is 
not  always  present  in  songs  said  to  have  been  'made  up/  ! 

This  account  of  the  origin  of  songs  and  dream-societies 
among  the  aborigines  of  America  will  aid  us  in  comprehending 
how  religious  ideas,  institutions  and  rites  may  have  come  into 
existence  in  other  regions.  The  dream  seems  to  the  primitive 
man  to  introduce  him  into  another  than  the  every-day  world. 
In  it  he  seems  to  come  into  direct  relations  with  the  world  of 
the  dead  and  with  an  order  of  experiences  which  is  not  only 
other,  but  more  real,  than  those  of  his  waking  moments.  These 
manifestations  of  the  subconscious  take  on  for  him  the  nature 
of  revelations,  in  the  sense  that  they  introduce  him  to  a  world 
of  spirits  which  is  permanent,  because  he  comes  to  think  it 
subsists  before  his  birth  and  after  his  death. 

Not  only  does  the  dream  greatly  aid  the  primitive  man  in 
enlarging  his  religious  rites  and  beliefs ;  but  there  can  be  little 
doubt  that  the  image  affords  like  constructive  aid.  If  the 
image-shaping  power  of  the  imagination  in  present-day  man 
had  any  real  counterpart  in  the  experiences  of  primitive  man, 

[112] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF   RELIGION 

as  was  most  probably  the  case,  it  is  quite  certain  that  it  af- 
forded a  large  originative  source  for  the  production  of  spirits, 
heroes,  and  gods.  The  image  may  be  regarded  as  the  waking- 
dream  or  the  dream  may  be  regarded  as  a  series  of  images  pro- 
duced in  sleep.  In  some  persons  the  capacity  for  day-dreams 
is  very  great,  and  many  a  scene,  person,  and  experience  seems 
by  that  process  to  stand  out  as  of  the  very  nature  of  reality. 
The  imagination  pictures  another  world  in  such  realistic  form 
that  it  not  only  seems  tangible,  but  distinctly  concrete.  Much 
present-day  evidence  from  ghost-seers,  believers  in  the  occult, 
crystal-gazers,  spiritists,  and  others,  makes  it  certain  that  the 
primitive  man  could  see,  as  it  were,  fauns  and  dryads  in  the 
woods,  spirits  in  the  dark-time  of  the  night,  and  gods  behind 
the  greater  phenomena  of  nature.  Not  only  did  the  animistic 
tendency  give  a  basis  for  such  conceptions;  but  the  imagin- 
ative mind  could  see  these  beings  in  many  a  waking  experience. 
He  not  only  believed  in  them  because  his  animistic  conception 
of  the  world  gave  him  a  reason  for  their  existence ;  but  he 
actually  saw  them,  even  with  his  own  eyes,  as  he  thought. 

Not  only  did  the  individual  create  another  world  in  this 
manner,  that  seemed  to  him  as  real  as  the  world  of  tangible 
experiences;  but  more  especially  was  this  gift  for  image-crea- 
tion product  of  the  collective  capacity  for  beholding  what 
the  senses  do  not  report.  Once  beheld  in  this  manner  such 
creation  enters  into  tradition,  legend  or  myth,  and  is  retained 
for  many  centuries. 

If  we  take  into  consideration  the  fact  that  the  primitive 
man  had  no  science,  no  accumulated  results  of  observation  and 
experimentation  through  many  thousands  of  years,  we  shall 
recognize  the  inevitableness  of  these  conclusions,  at  which  he 
arrived,  that  he  had  in  his  body  a  something  not  the  same  as 
the  body,  but  intangible  and  spiritual,  and  that  this  something 

[113] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

could  go  away  and  return.  "When  death  came  the  something 
was  no  longer  in  the  body,  which  then  became  inert,  subject 
to  decay.  That  something  must  have  departed  from  the  body, 
and  had  taken  its  flight,  as  seemed  to  be  true  in  dreams,  to 
some  other  region,  though  it  might  remain  for  a  time  about 
its  old  abode. 

Such  experiences  as  these  led  the  primitive  man  to  think 
that  there  was  in  him  what  we  know  as  the  soul,  a  being  other 
than  the  body,  that  could  leave  the  body  in  dreams,  fly  away 
from  it  at  death,  and  show  itself  in  the  breath  and  in  the 
shadow.  This  soul,  when  it  had  gone  away  at  death,  became  a 
ghost,  and  had  its  place  elsewhere  than  in  the  body.  Even  in 
the  more  advanced  nations  of  the  ancient  world  these  concep- 
tions survived,  and  the  soul  was  conceived  under  the  form  of 
breath,  as  in  the  ruach  of  the  Hebrews,  the  pneuma  of  the 
Greeks,  and  the  spirit  us  of  the  Romans.  The  breath  was  that 
which  lived  in  the  body,  and  gave  it  animation,  gave  it  work- 
ing capacity,  and  gave  it  power  to  think  and  will. 


II 

Giving  attention  to  the  manner  in  which  the  soul  acted 
on  the  body,  and  seemed  to  command  it,  and  to  make  it  sub- 
servient to  its  wishes,  it  was  natural  that  the  primitive  man 
should  see  a  like  force  or  power  in  the  world  around  him.  The 
soul  or  breath  or  pneuma  within  him  made  his  body  move  from 
place  to  place,  accomplish  work,  and  dream  of  scenes  unseen 
to  the  waking  eye.  Whatever  in  the  outward  world  moved, 
produced  results,  led  to  change  and  growth,  seemed  to  result 
from  a  cause  similar  to  that  which  acted  in  himself.  Some- 
thing in  himself  made  him  breathe,  dream,  act  and  think ;  and 
something  in  the  world  about  made  the  wind  blow,  the  ocean 

[114] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF   RELIGION 

toss  up  waves  and  beat  against  the  shore,  trees  live  and  grow, 
the  stars  move  in  their  courses,  and  all  animals  live  and  breathe 
like  men.  What  other  inference  could  there  be  than  that  there 
was  a  soul  or  spirit  in  all  of  these,  and  that  a  life  was  in  them 
similar  to  that  in  men? 

This  primitive  conception  of  the  soul  in  man,  and  of  all 
other  creatures  and  things  as  being  also  possessed  of  souls,  was 
first  described  and  named  by  Edward  B.  Tylor,  in  the  eleventh 
chapter  of  his  Primitive  Culture,  published  in  1871.  He  said 
that  so  far  as  we  can  judge  from  the  immense  mass  of  ac- 
cessible evidence,  the  belief  in  spiritual  beings  appears  among 
all  low  races  with  whom  we  have  attained  to  thoroughly  inti- 
mate acquaintance.  This  belief  he  called  Animism,  which  he 
described  as  "the  deep-lying  doctrine  of  spiritual  beings, 
which  embodies  the  very  essence  of  spiritualistic  as  opposed 
to  materialistic  philosophy. " 

Although  Tylor  devoted  seven  chapters  to  the  interpreta- 
tion of  animism,  and  to  the  tracing  out  of  its  manifestations  in 
all  parts  of  the  world,  and  in  all  ages,  the  substance  of  it  he 
described  in  these  words:  "Animism  is,  in  fact,  the  ground- 
work of  the  philosophy  of  religion,  from  that  of  savages  up 
to  that  of  civilized  men.  And  although  it  may  at  first  sight 
seem  to  afford  but  a  bare  and  meager  definition  of  a  minimum 
of  religion,  it  will  be  found  practically  sufficient;  for  where 
the  root  is,  the  branches  will  generally  be  produced.  It  is 
habitually  found  that  the  theory  of  animism  divides  into  two 
great  dogmas,  forming  parts  of  one  consistent  doctrine;  first, 
concerning  souls  of  individual  creatures,  capable  of  continued 
existence  after  the  death  or  destruction  of  the  body;  second, 
concerning  other  spirits,  upward  to  the  rank  of  powerful 
deities.  Spiritual  beings  are  held  to  .affect  or  control  the 
events  of  the  material  world,  and  man's  life  here  and  here- 

[115] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  EELIGION 

after;  and  it  being  considered  that  they  hold  intercourse  with 
men,  and  receive  pleasure  or  displeasure  from  human  actions, 
the  belief  in  their  existence  leads  naturally,  and  it  might  al- 
most be  said  inevitably,  sooner  or  later  to  active  reverence  and 
propitiation.  Thus  animism,  in  its  full  development,  includes 
the  belief  in  souls  and  in  a  future  state,  in  controlling  deities 
and  subordinate  spirits,  these  doctrines  practically  resulting 
in  some  kind  of  active  worship." 

This  interpretation  of  the  origin  of  religion,  which  Tylor 
defines,  in  a  minimum  form,  as  the  belief  in  spiritual  beings, 
has  been  very  generally  accepted  by  the  students  of  origins. 
Some  investigators,  however,  think  it  is  of  too  advanced  a 
nature,  and  that  it  assumes  for  the  earliest  men  a  degree  of 
mental  development  which  could  not  have  been  theirs.  Some 
of  these  more  recent  inquiries,  as  E.  E.  Marett,  in  The 
Threshold  of  Eeligion,  are  of  the  opinion  that  there  was  a 
preanimistic  type  of  belief,  when  the  primitive  man  merely 
thought  that  all  things  around  him  were  animated.  This  con- 
ception of  animatism,  or  that  all  things  and  beings  are  alive 
as  man  is  alive,  may  be  regarded  as  an  early  form  of  animism, 
and  not  to  differ  from  it,  except  as  an  early  stage  in  any  devel- 
opment is  ruder  than  the  more  advanced  ones.  This  type  of 
animism  has  been  defined  by  W.  H.  Hudson  in  his  reminis- 
cences of  his  boyhood,  entitled  Far  Away  and  Long  Ago,  as 
"the  tendency  or  impulse  or  instinct,  in  which  all  myth  orig- 
inates, to  animate  all  things;  the  projection  of  ourselves  into 
nature;  the  sense  and  apprehension  of  an  intelligence  like  our 
own  but  more  powerful  in  all  visible  things. "  He  describes 
certain  boyhood  experiences  as  of  the  nature  of  animism,  and 
he  is  of  the  opinion  that  many  children  pass  through  a  period 
of  mental  experiences  similar  to  those  of  the  primitive  man. 
He  says  that  what  he  was  taught  in  regard  to  religion  did  not 

[116] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

touch  his  heart  "as  it  was  touched  and  thrilled  by  something 
nearer,  more  intimate,  in  nature,  not  only  in  moonlit  trees  or 
in  a  flower  or  serpent,  but,  in  certain  exquisite  moments  and 
moods  and  in  certain  aspects  of  nature,  in  'every  grass'  and 
in  all  things,  animate  and  inanimate. " 

In  his  book  on  The  Idea  of  the  Soul,  A.  E.  Crawley  as- 
sumes that  he  has  proven  that  the  doctrine  of  animism  is  false, 
and  that  he  has  displaced  it  by  a  truer  interpretation  of  the 
phenomena  described  by  Tylor.  Most  investigators,  however, 
hold  fast  to  the  conclusions  of  Tylor,  and  find  his  theory  sound 
as  an  interpretation  of  the  facts.  In  his  book  on  Body  and 
Mind,  William  McDougall  claims  that  animism  is  not  only 
true,  but  that  it  may  be  traced  through  the  whole  of  the  history 
of  religion  down  to  our  own  time,  and  that  it  remains,  even 
now,  the  truest  account  of  the  relations  of  the  mind  to  the 
physical  organism.  To  whatever  extent  the  definition  given 
by  Tylor  to  animism,  has  been  modified  by  subsequent  investiga- 
tions, his  conclusions  have  stood  so  far  uninpregnable  as  de- 
fining the  religion  of  early  man,  and  as  a  sound  explanation 
of  many  of  the  phenomena  presented  by  the  history  of  religion 
even  to  our  own  day. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  dreams,  shadows,  echoes, 
the  breath  or  reflections  can  give  the  whole  substance  of  reli- 
gion, even  to  the  primitive  man.  Though  animism,  preceded 
by  animatism,  as  in  large  degree  growing  out  of  these  phases 
of  human  experience,  interprets  the  primary  nature  of  religion, 
there  are  many  other  experiences  which  enlarge  and  justify 
the  animistic  conception.  These  include  all  phases  of  exper- 
ience which  are  abnormal,  pathological  or  of  an  unusual  nature. 
Widely  over  the  world  stimulants  and  narcotics  are  made  use 
of  to  bring  on  conditions  of  ecstacy  or  highly  exalted  states  of 
the  mind.  Insanity,  epilepsy,  and  the  hypnotic  state,  are  ac- 

[117] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

cepted  in  the  same  manner.  The  insane  or  idiotic  person  is 
regarded  as  possessed,  not  merely  of  some  unusual  power,  but 
as  being  the  possessor  of  powers  of  a  spiritual  or  super-natural 
nature.  Twins  are  looked  upon  as  uncanny  and  abnormal,  and 
one  or  both  of  them,  in  some  tribes,  is  made  a  medicine-man  or 
a  priest. 

Powerful  agents  in  the  development  of  early  religions  are 
all  forms  of  trance  and  the  hypnotic  state,  hysteria,  uncons- 
ciousness, hallucinations,  clairvoyance,  apparitions  of  the  dead, 
telepathy,  and  the  exercise  of  the  imagination.  In  one  or  an- 
other degree  all  of  these  manifestations  are  to  be  found  among 
primitive  men,  and  they  give  sanction  to  the  idea  of  the  soul 
and  its  powers.  Children  amuse  themselves  with  finding  in 
the  burning  wood  or  coal  of  an  open  fire,  images  of  animals 
or  persons;  and  they  may  exercise  the  same  gift  in  seeing  in 
cloud  or  water  shapes  that  seem  to  resemble  one  or  another 
object.  Without  doubt  the  primitive  man  saw  such  shapes 
in  the  same  places,  and  in  many  others.  He  differed  from  the 
children  of  today,  in  that  these  shapes  were  to  him  real.  What 
he  thus  saw  he  regarded  as  justifying  his  belief  in  spiritual 
beings  as  manifested  in  all  the  phenomena  of  nature.  Espe- 
cially was  this  gift  for  discovering  something  supernatural  in 
his  environment  made  effective,  and  largely  increased  in  its 
certainty  and  impressiveness,  by  the  communal  or  contagious 
character  of  these  experiences.  It  has  been  shown  again  and 
again  that  large  numbers  of  persons,  whole  clans  or  tribes, 
will  see  apparitions  or  hear  music  or  oral  communications, 
which  have  no  existence  save  in  the  imagination.  This  power 
of  collective  suggestion  is  one  that  frequently  manifests  itself, 
and  gives  assured  sanction  to  the  beliefs  on  which  these  ex- 
periences rest  for  their  basis  of  interpretation. 

[118] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

It  has  been  shown  that  auto-suggestion  is  an  effective  means 
of  convincing  the  seer  and  prophet  of  the  validity  of  their  be- 
liefs ;  but  when  we  find  communal-suggestion  at  work  we  have 
the  force  that  is  more  powerful,  perhaps,  than  any  other  in 
leading  to  one  or  another  phase  of  religious  development. 
Psychologists  are  not  as  yet  agreed  as  to  the  nature  of  sub- 
conscious mental  action  or  how  it  is  that  it  manifests  itself  in 
mysticism,  the  feeling  of  divine  presences,  demoniac  posses- 
sion, and  many  another  phase  of  religious  manifestation. 
Many  means  have  been  employed  in  bringing  about  exper- 
iences of  this  nature,  such  as  crystal-gazing  or  any  fixture  of 
sight  for  prolonged  periods  on  single  objects ;  fasting,  solitude, 
repetition  of  single  chords  or  rhythmic  expressions  —  these, 
and  many  other,  aids  have  been  employed  in  bringing  about 
ecstacy,  rhapsody,  trance,  and  spiritual  intoxication.  Most  ef- 
fective of  all  these  aids  to  supernatural  insight  or  experiences 
is  the  contagion  of  communal  action  in  ritual  or  other  collect- 
ive manifestations  of  religious  belief. 

Another  of  the  aids  to  growth  in  spiritual  attitudes  of  mind 
amongst  primitive  peoples  is  nervous  instability.  The  people 
of  Siberia  are  in  a  large  measure  susceptible  to  any  form  of 
excitement,  and  are  in  a  remarkable  degree  given  to  what  we 
call  "superstitions."  Any  sudden  noise  or  unusual  sight  will 
throw  them  into  a  hypnotic  state,  when  they  lose  consciousness 
or  manifest  symptoms  of  delusion  or  even  of  a  state  bordering 
on  insanity.  Persons  thus  highly  susceptible  become  shamans 
and  deal  in  magic,  or  priests  and  lead  the  religion  of  a  com- 
munity. 

Of  a  higher  type  is  that  phase  of  religious  expression 
growing  out  of  the  use  of  language,  and  the  recognition  that 
it  represents  something  not  material,  but  intangible  and  spir- 
itual. In  many  parts  of  the  world  words  seem  to  be  regarded 

[119] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

as  having  something  uncanny  and  mysterious  about  them,  and 
they  are  accepted  as  in  some  way  related  to  the  soul,  and  per- 
haps as  themselves  of  a  spiritual  nature.  At  least,  many  peo- 
ples are  not  willing  to  reveal  their  names,  change  the  name  of 
a  child  after  initiation  or  refuse  to  give  the  secret  name  of  the 
spiritual  beings  they  reverence  or  the  gods  they  worship.  It 
is  often  thought  that  to  possess  the  name  of  a  person  is  to  pos- 
sess power  over  him,  and  to  become  the  ruler  of  his  destinies. 
The  curse  is  greatly  dreaded,  and  it  is  assumed  to  have  a 
mystic  and  powerful  influence  over  the  one  against  whom  the 
curse  is  spoken.  The  word  is  often  almost  regarded  as  a  de- 
finite spiritual  being  in  itself.  The  idea,  as  in  the  philosophy 
of  Plato,  is  thought  to  be  something  real,  the  most  definite 
thing  there  is.  In  higher  types  of  religion  the  word  of  God 
becomes  as  God  himself.  We  read  that  in  the  beginning  was 
the  Word,  which  was  but  God  in  another  form. 

All  of  these  types  of  religious  manifestation  seem  to  grow 
out  of  animism.  It  may  be  desirable,  therefore,  to  return  briefly 
to  that  mode  of  expression  of  the  mind  in  its  individual  and  col- 
lective activities,  and  inquire  somewhat  more  specifically  as 
to  its  nature.  Alice  Fletcher,  writing  in  the  Handbook  of 
American  Indians,  says  of  the  Omaha,  one  of  the  Siouan  tribes, 
that  to  them  nothing  is  without  life;  the  rock  lives,  so  do  the 
clouds,  the  tree,  the  animal.  The  Omaha,  she  adds,  "projects 
his  own  consciousness  upon  all  things,  and  ascribes  to  them 
experiences  and  characteristics  with  which  he  is  familiar ;  there 
is  to  him  something  in  common  between  all  creatures  and  all 
natural  forms,  a  something  which  brings  them  into  existence 
and  holds  them  intact;  this  something  he  conceives  of  as  akin 
to  his  own  conscious  being. "  The  Omaha  calls  this  power 
Wakonda,  and  to  him  it  implies  intelligence  as  well  as  power. 
This  concept  is  vague,  and  it  has  in  it  an  element  of  the  myster- 

[120] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

LOUS,  the  incomprehensible;  and  spiritual  strength  as  well. 
Whatever  is  unusual  is  wakonda,  as  well  as  whatever  is  a  mani- 
festation of  mind  or  will.  Wakonda  is  invisible,  says  Fletcher, 
and  therefore  allied  to  the  idea  of  spirit.  Objects  seen  in 
dreams  or  visions  partake  of  the  idea  or  nature  of  spirit,  and 
when  these  objects  speak  to  man  in  answer  to  his  entreaty, 
the  act  is  possible  because  of  the  power  of  wakonda,  and  the 
object,  be  it  thunder-cloud,  animal,  or  bird,  seen  and  heard  by 
the  dreamer,  may  be  spoken  of  by  him  as  wakonda.  Though 
it  is  extremely  difficult  to  define  wakonda,  as  it  is  to  define 
animism,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  power  exerted  over 
the  individual  and  the  group  is  very  great,  and  that  it  makes 
for  the  development  of  religion. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  world,  in  Melanesia,  wakonda  ap- 
pears under  the  name  of  mana,  though  it  has  much  the  same 
characteristics,  and  is  but  another  phase  of  what  Tylor  called 
animism.  R.  H.  Codrington,  in  his  book  on  The  Melanesians, 
defines  mana  as  everything  that  is  beyond  the  ordinary  power  of 
man.  The  Melanesian  mind  is  entirely  possessed  by  the  be- 
lief in  a  supernatural  power  or  influence,  and  this  is  what  he 
names  as  mana.  It  is,  we  read  in  the  pages  of  Codrington, 
''present  in  the  atmosphere  of  life,  attaches  itself  to  persons  and 
to  things,  and  is  manifested  by  results  which  can  only  be  ascribed 
to  its  operation."  This  power,  although  it  is  impersonal,  is  al- 
ways active  through  persons,  who  direct  it.  It  is  a  part  of  the 
life  of  the  soul,  and  it  is  manifested  by  all  spirits.  Some  per- 
sons are  full  of  mana,  such  as  kings,  and  those  who  have  special 
religious  gifts.  The  Melanesians  believe  in  beings  who  have 
a  great  deal  of  mana,  but  are  personal  and  intelligent,  though 
of  a  higher  nature  than  men.  These  beings  are  of  the  nature  of 
spirits,  but  are  of  another  character  than  ghosts,  who  are  the 
disembodied  human  beings  who  are  able  to  return  after  death. 

[121] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

These  spirits  are  invoked,  and  their  aid  is  sought.  The  ghosts 
are  also  supposed  to  possess  mana,  but  not  to  so  large  an  extent, 
and  are  therefore  not  regarded  as  in  the  same  degree  powerful. 

Mana  or  wakonda  is  found  in  some  form  as  accepted  by 
nearly  all  primitive  peoples.  Each  language  has  its  own  name 
for  it,  but  the  thing  itself,  though  it  varies  considerably  in  its 
manifestations,  is  fundamentally  the  same  everywhere.  The 
Iroquois  called  it  orenda,  the  Algonkins  manitou,  the  Shoshoni 
pokunt,  the  Salish  sulia,  and  in  Mexico  it  was  called  nagual.  In 
Fiji  the  name  is  kalou,  among  the  Dyaks  of  Borneo  semungat, 
while  the  Malagasy  of  Madagascar  called  it  andriamanitra.  In 
Africa  the  Masia  called  it  nyai,  the  Bafiote  of  the  lower  Congo 
named  it  lunyensu,  and  the  Boloki  of  the  upper  Congo  described 
it  as  likundu.  The  idea  embodied  in  these  names  was  by  no 
means  absent  from  the  higher  peoples,  and  the  Greeks  knew  it 
as  teras.  What  was  thus  expressed,  as  has  been  suggested,  has 
many  resemblances  to  the  Christian  idea  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
which  has  been  often  regarded  as  impersonal,  and  as  a  per- 
vading, mysterious,  and  subtle  communication  of  the  life  of 
God  to  the  believer.  Such,  in  no  small  degree,  was  the  mana 
of  the  Melanesian  and  the  manitou  of  the  Indian  of  America. 

In  the  Handbook  of  American  Indians,  Alice  Fletcher 
describes  the  Iroquois  conception  of  orenda  as  "a  fictive  force, 
principle,  or  magic  power  which  was  assumed  by  the  inchoate 
reasoning  of  primitive  man  to  be  inherent  in  every  body  and 
being  of  nature  and  in  every  personified  attribute,  property, 
or  activity,  belonging  to  each  of  these  and  conceived  to  be  the 
active  cause  or  force,  or  dynamic  energy,  involved  in  every  op- 
eration cr  phenomenon  of  nature,  in  any  manner  affecting  or 
controlling  the  welfare  of  man.  This  hypothetic  principle  was 
conceived  to  be  immaterial,  occult,  impersonal,  mysterious  in 
mode  of  action,  limited  in  function  and  efficiency,  and  not  at  all 

[122] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

omnipotent,  local  and  not  omnipresent,  and  ever  embodied  or 
immanent  in  some  object,  although  it  was  believed  that  it  could 
be  transferred,  attracted,  acquired,  increased,  suppressed,  or  en- 
thralled by  the  orenda  of  occult  ritualistic  formulas  endowed 
with  more  potency/' 

Such  was  the  nature  of  orenda,  wakonda,  mana,  or  whatever 
the  name  by  which  this  potent  force  was  designated.  To  com- 
prehend fully  the  significance  of  this  force  this  additional  state- 
ment by  Fletcher  must  be  taken  into  consideration:  "As  all 
the  bodies  of  the  environment  of  primitive  man  were  regarded 
by  him  as  endowed  with  life,  mind,  and  volition,  he  inferred 
that  his  relations  with  these  environing  objects  were  directly 
dependent  on  the  caprice  of  these  beings.  So  to  obtain  his  needs 
man  must  gain  the  goodwill  of  each  one  of  a  thousand  con- 
trolling minds  by  prayer,  sacrifice,  some  acceptable  offering,  or 
propitiatory  act,  in  order  to  influence  the  exercise  in  his  behalf 
of  the  orenda  or  magic  power  which  he  believed  was  controlled 
by  the  particular  being  invoked.  Thus  it  came  that  the  posses- 
sion of  orenda  or  magic  power  is  the  distinctive  characteristic 
of  all  the  gods,  and  these  gods  in  earlier  times  were  all  the 
bodies  and  beings  of  nature  in  any  manner  affecting  the  weal 
or  woe  of  man.  So  the  primitive  man  interpreted  the  activities 
of  nature  to  be  due  to  the  struggle  of  one  orenda  against  another, 
put  forth  by  the  beings  or  bodies  of  the  environment,  the  former 
possessing  orenda  and  the  latter  life,  mind,  and  orenda  only  by 
virtue  of  his  own  imputation  of  these  things  to  lifeless  objects." 

It  is  important  to  recognize  the  universality  of  this  con- 
ception of  mana  or  orenda  amongst  primitive  peoples,  and  that 
it  is  at  the  basis  of  the  first  forms  of  religion  of  which  we  have 
any  knowledge.  This  fact  is  stated  by  Franz  Boas  in  the  same 
work,  in  treating  of  religion,  when  he  says  that  the  fundamental 
concept  of  the  religious  life  is  "the  belief  in  the  existence  of 

[123] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  EELIGION 

magic  power,  which  may  influence  the  life  of  man,  and  which 
in  turn  may  be  influenced  by  human  activity."  This  recog- 
nition is  all  the  more  important  because  it  is  from  this  potent 
magic  force  that  there  is  developed  the  idea  of  the  soul,  spirit, 
and  God.  The  very  foundations  of  religion,  therefore,  are  to  be 
found  in  this  conception  of  mana,  in  so  far  as  it  manifests  itself 
in  the  life  and  thought  of  primitive  man. 

Ill 

Even  with  primitive  man,  as  he  presents  himself  to  us  in 
various  parts  of  the  world  to-day,  religion  is  not  confined  to 
magic,  mana,  or  any  other  single  and  limited  manifestation.  It 
takes  on  many  forms,  and  one  of  them,  known  to  the  Melane- 
sians  as  tabu  or  tapu  (in  English  taboo),  is  intimately  con- 
nected with  mana.  The  fundamental  idea  of  tabu  is  of  things 
sacred,  and  also  of  things  impure  or  unclean.  To  the  primitive 
man  these  two  phases  of  tabu  are  nearly  alike,  the  uncleanness 
being  intimately  related  to  the  sacredness.  That  which  is  tabu 
is  that  which  is  forbidden ;  the  child  being  taught  in  its  earliest 
years  that  certain  things  and  acts  are  an  abomination,  not  to 
be  touched,  seen  or  eaten.  The  reason  for  this  is  that  these 
objects  are  the  abode  or  the  manifestation  of  a  ghost  or  spirit, 
in  whose  name,  or  in  reliance  on  whom,  it  is  pronounced;  the 
tabu  being  a  prohibition  with  a  curse  implied  in  it  or  expressed 
by  means  of  it.  In  Melanesia  the  ghost  is  known  as  tarunga, 
but  a  spirit  is  a  tindalo.  The  ghost  may  belong  to  animals  as 
well  as  man,  but  the  spirit  or  tindalo  is  that  of  man  and  not  that 
of  animals.  A  tindalo  that  is  connected  with  superhuman  power 
and  intelligence  is,  in  one  of  the  islands,  at  least,  known  as  vui. 
Evidently,  the  spirits  and  the  vui  are  on  the  way  to  becoming 
gods ;  and  it  is  from  these  that  the  higher  powers  are  developed. 

[124] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

In  all  these  conceptions  the  will,  or  the  functioning  power 
in  man,  that  by  means  of  which  he  accomplishes  results  and  be- 
comes a  creator  according  to  his  own  gifts,  being  regarded  also 
as  belonging  to  all  objects,  plants,  animals,  and  whatever  else 
is  in  man's  environment,  acquires  for  the  primitive  man  a 
magical,  spiritual  and  sacred  character.  What  is  thus  set  apart 
by  special  gifts  becomes  either  unclean,  not  to  be  touched 
or  handled  or  it  becomes  sacred,  to  be  propitiated,  reverenced, 
and  it  may  be,  worshipped.  In  defining  the  soul,  in  the  Hand- 
book of  American  Indians,  Boas  says  it  has  been  developed  out 
of  the  concept  of  the  power  of  acting  as  resident  in  the  body, 
the  concept  of  subjective  feelings  connected  with  imagery,  and 
the  concept  of  objective  impressions  developed  from  memory 
images.  To  these  must  be  added  the  conception  of  will  power, 
accepted  as  being  in  some  manner  dissociated  from  the  physical 
activities  of  the  body.  When  these  concepts  are  associated  with 
the  greater  phenomena  of  nature,  such  as  the  sun,  mountains, 
the  ocean  or  the  earth  itself,  there  appear  great  and  powerful 
spirits,  far  above  man,  whom  we  know  as  gods. 

If  a  man  after  death,  or  even  before,  in  some  instances,  has 
a  large  measure  of  mana,  and  ability  to  make  things  or  persons 
tabu,  he  is  regarded  as  sacred.  In  a  degree  he  becomes  a 
god.  If  these  same  powers  are  found  in  any  other  being  or 
object,  these,  too,  become  gods  in  one  or  another  degree,  in  pro- 
portion to  their  mana.  Every  being  and  object  possessing  un 
canny,  unusual  or  conspicuous  qualities  is  regarded  as  possessed 
in  large  measure  of  mana,  and  is  therefore  a  god.  Most  in- 
terpreters of  early  religions  find  these  qualities  of  godlikeness 
in  what  is  vast  among  the  great  phenomena  of  nature,  and  em- 
phasize the  god-qualities  of  the  sun,  moon,  sky,  ocean,  mountains, 
thunder,  and  similar  objects.  Without  doubt  these  more  majes- 
tic and  conspicuous  natural  phenomena  are  regarded  as  gods, 

[125] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OP  RELIGION 

even  by  primitive  men;  but  the  full  development  of  such 
appears  to  come  later,  and  are  not  assigned  their  highest  mani- 
festations in  the  earliest  periods.  Really  primitive  man  prefers 
to  see  what  is  powerful  and  godlike  in  what  is  nearer  and  more 
familiar. 

A  venerable  Indian  one  day  said  to  Alice  Fletcher:  "The 
tree  is  like  a  human  being,  for  it  has  life  and  grows,  so  we  pray 
to  it  and  put  offerings  on  it,  that  the  mysterious  power  may 
help  us."  The  tree  has  wakonda  or  mana,  and  it  can  give  of 
its  power  to  those  who  approach  it  in  the  right  manner,  that 
suggested  by  this  Indian.  In  all  parts  of  the  world  trees  have 
been  venerated  as  sacred,  as  being  possessed  of  magical  or  sacred 
qualities,  or  as  being  the  abode  of  a  spirit  or  god.  In  his  re- 
cently published  lectures,  entitled  The  Ascent  of  Olympus, 
Rendel  Harris  has  shown  that  Dionysus  may  have  been,  in  his 
beginnings,  nothing  else  than  the  ivy;  Apollo  the  apple-tree 
and  the  mistletoe  which  grows  on  it,  and  Aphrodite  to  have  been 
the  mandrake  or  love-apple.  Classical  students  are  very  likely 
to  dispute  these  theories,  but  Harris  gives  much  evidence  in 
favor  of  them.  At  any  rate,  it  is  evident  that  all  kinds 
of  trees,  plants  and  vegetables  were  regarded,  in  one  time  and 
place  or  another,  as  possessed  of  mana  and  the  gift  of  tabu. 

Why  should  plants  be  regarded  as  possessed  of  souls,  to 
be  the  abode  of  spirits  or  to  be  in  some  manner  the  manifesta- 
tions of  godlike  powers?  It  is  because  they  possess  mana,  and 
mana  means  that  they  serve  the  purposes  of  man.  Probably 
they  are  revered  primarily  because  they  furnish  food,  and  man 
finds  himself  dependent  on  them  for  the  sustenance  of  his  life. 
Having  mana,  when  they  are  eaten,  that  mana  enters  into  those 
who  partake  of  them,  and  it  is  communicated  to  those  who  eat. 
Here  we  have  the  primary  form  of  all  those  communal  sacra- 
ments when  man  partakes  of  plants  or  their  juices  as  giving 

[126] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

him  mana,  that  is,  its  power.  Often  it  is  thought  that  no  such 
access  of  power  is  secured  by  the  ordinary  partaking  of  vege- 
tables, fruits  or  other  forms  of  plant-life;  but  when  these  are 
eaten  or  partaken  of  by  the  community  in  a  festival  especially 
established  for  the  purpose,  not  only  is  the  individual  who  par- 
takes made  stronger,  but  the  whole  fellowship  is  brought  into 
intimate  relations  with  the  mana  in  the  food  eaten  or  the  juices 
drunk. 

IV 

The  complete  development  of  this  phase  of  man's  relations 
to  the  vegetable  world  comes  at  a  later  stage  in  the  progress  of 
culture ;  and  we  may  now  turn  aside  to  consider  another  expres- 
sion of  the  same  power  of  mana  or  wakonda.  Strange  as  it  may 
seem  to  us  of  to-day,  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  man's  con- 
tact with  the  animal  world  came  into  play  at  a  very  early  period 
in  his  history  as  shaping  the  outward  manifestations  of  religion. 
Reverence  for  and  worship  of  animals  appears  in  some  form  in 
connection  with  every  religion,  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest. 
The  only  adequate  study  of  this  subject  is  that  by  Northcote  W. 
Thomas,  which  appears  in  the  first  volume  of  the  Encyclopaedia 
of  Religion  and  Ethics.  He  shows  that  all  the  qualities  possessed 
by  man  are  attributed  to  animals,  that  animals  are  but  men 
clothed  in  another  form,  and  that  there  is  something  uncanny, 
miraculous,  magical,  and  even  supernatural,  possessed  by  them. 

The  distinction  between  men  and  animals  is  not  recognized 
by  early  peoples,  evidently  because  they  possess  many  of  man's 
abilities,  can  think,  act  from  motives,  express  their  desires,  and 
make  use  of  a  slyness,  a  cunning,  a  subtlety  of  will-power  which 
man  envies  and  respects.  Early  men  attribute  the  power  of 
speech  to  animals,  and  they  assign  to  them  a  reasoning  power 
far  beyond  their  own.  When  they  will,  the  animals  can  cast 

[127] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

off  their  animal  form,  as  a  snake  its  skin,  and  appear  as  what 
they  are,  human  beings  in  disguise.  Not  only  may  they  trans- 
form themselves  into  human  beings,  but  men  may  assume  the 
animal  form;  and  these  races  or  orders  may  intermarry,  live 
happily  with  each  other,  and  bear  children  partly  animal  and 
partly  human.  Many  religions,  and  more  especially  Brahman- 
ism  and  Buddhism  among  those  of  the  higher  races,  believe  that 
men  may  be  transformed  after  death  into  animals,  in  order 
that  their  karma,  or  force  resulting  from  conduct,  may  be  worked 
out  to  its  legitimate  conclusions.  Many  primitive  peoples  ac- 
cept this  view  of  the  relations  of  men  and  animals,  and  hold 
that  men  may  be  born  as  animals  and  animals  as  men,  in  order 
to  work  out  the  expiatory  results  required  in  securing  moral 
advancement  and  growth.  In  every  religion  of  the  ancient 
world  there  were  animal  gods,  as  Hanuman,  the  monkey-god 
of  the  Hindus;  and  Sebek,  the  crocodile-god  of  the  Egyptians. 
Even  a  god  of  the  high  type  of  Zeus  appears  as  a  horse  in  one 
of  his  many  transformations,  and  as  other  animals  in  the  pursuit 
of  his  amours  or  in  order  to  disguise  himself.  This  undoubtedly 
means  that  he  was  either  originally  one  or  the  other  of  these 
animals  or  that  he  had  taken  over  the  attributes  of  these  animal- 
gods  in  the  regions  where  his  worship  had  been  established. 

Animals  hold  a  very  large  place  in  the  early  mythologies. 
They  appear  as  bearers  of  the  earth  on  their  backs,  as  in  the 
Hindu  conception  of  the  tortoise  or  the  elephant.  These  sup- 
porting animals  may  cause  the  earth  to  quake  when  they  turn 
over  or  move  in  order  to  secure  a  more  restful  position.  An  ani- 
mal may  watch  over  the  entrance  to  the  other  world,  as  in  the 
instance  of  Cerbebus,  the  three-headed  dog  who  protects  the 
way-  of  entrance  to  the  lower  world  of  the  Greeks.  The  animal 
has  magical  powers,  as  we  have  seen;  and  it  is  this  gift  which 
attaches  him  to  witches,  and  makes  the  cat  the  inevitable  com- 

[128] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

panion  of  the  European  witch.  Wherever  we  find  the  wizard 
or  the  witch,  we  find  his  or  her  familiar,  an  animal  into  which 
these  beings  may  be  transformed.  If  the  animal  is  wounded, 
the  witch  is  wounded  in  the  same  manner.  The  werewolf  is  a 
familiar  object  in  European  folk-lore,  and  may  be  found  in 
nearly  every  part  of  the  world.  This  belief,  it  has  been 
assumed,  has  quite  died  out ;  but  here  is  a  book  on  Werewolves, 
by  Elliott  O'Donnell,  published  in  London  by  Methuen,  in  1912, 
which  assures  us  that  such  creatures  really  exist,  and  may  be 
found  at  the  present  day  by  those  who  know  how  to  seek  for 
them.  He  assumes  that  these  creatures  are  emanations  from 
the  dead  or  phantasms  of  those  who  have  been  of  a  cruel,  savage 
and  treacherous  nature. 

Again,  it  is  in  some  tribes  assumed  that  the  life  of  a  child 
is  bound  up  with  that  of  some  animal,  that  its  life-index  or  power 
of  life,  has  been  located  in  an  animal,  and  that  as  the  animal 
prospers,  suffers  or  dies,  such  will  be  the  fate  of  the  human  being. 
Some  animals  have  a  great  power  of  fascination,  and  they  will 
charm  birds  to  their  destruction,  and  even  human  beings  are  not 
able  to  resist  this  power  in  the  serpent.  The  snake  and  the 
serpent  are  regarded  with  awe  everywhere,  partly  because  of 
their  manner  of  movement,  and  partly  because  they  are  to  be 
found  often  about  graves  and  cemeteries,  leading  to  the  con- 
clusion that  the  dead  have  taken  up  their  abode  in  these 
creatures. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  phases  of  this  regard  for  ani- 
mals is  the  acceptance  of  one  or  another  of  them  as  the  creator. 
The  northern  Algonkins  gave  this  place  to  the  Great  Hare  (or 
rabbit),  while  the  Tlingit  of  the  northwest  coast  of  Canada 
attribute  it  to  the  raven.  These  and  other  peoples  do  not  sup- 
pose that  the  ordinary  rabbit  or  raven  is  capable  of  creating 
the  world  or  of  accomplishing  any  other  unusual  task.  All  the 

[129] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF   RELIGION 

peoples  who  attribute  supernatural  powers  to  animals  regard 
the  actual  animal  they  hunt  as  no  more  than  a  mere  type  of 
that  greater  animal  which  takes  the  same  form,  but  is,  as  it  were, 
the  comprehensive  phase  of  all  the  animals  of  the  given  species. 
This  supreme  or  supernatural  raven  exists  in  the  heavens  as  a 
great  and  powerful  being,  full  of  magic,  a  supernatural  force, 
of  which  the  ordinary  animal  is  but  a  mere  resemblance  or  mani- 
festation. It  is  this  great  animal,  this  quintessence  of  the  pow- 
ers of  all  the  members  of  the  species,  which  is  the  creator,  the 
being  full  of  magical  power,  a  vast  reservoir  of  orenda. 

V 

One  other  form  of  the  reverence  for  and  worship  of  ani- 
mals must  be  considered.  This  is  what  is  called  totemism, 
which,  in  some  respects,  is  the  earliest  form  of  what  has  become 
known  as  the  doctrine  of  spirits,  in  this  instance  being  animals, 
and  not  dead  ancestors.  It  may  take  the  form  of  an  animal 
guardian  for  the  individual,  but  much  more  widely  it  is  that  of 
a  guardian,  protector  or  ancestor  of  a  communal  group.  Andrew 
Lang,  in  the  Encyclopaedia  Brittanica,  says  that  the  totem 
"denotes  the  object,  generally  of  a  natural  species,  animal  or 
vegetable,  but  occasionally  rain,  clouds,  star,  wind,  which  gives 
its  name  to  a  kindred  actual  or  supposed,  among  many  savage 
and  barbaric  races  in  America,  Africa,  Australia,  Asia  and  the 
isles.  Each  child,  male  or  female,  inherits  this  name,  either 
from  its  mother  (female  descent)  or  from  its  father  (male 
descent).  Between  each  person  and  his  or  her  name-giving 
object,  a  certain  mystic  rapport  is  supposed  to  exist. "  In  some 
tribes  the  individual  is  supposed  to  have  as  his  first  ancestor 
this  particular  animal  which  is  the  totem,  and  some  tale  is 
told  of  the  manner  in  which  the  descent  began.  At  the  same 
time,  the  whole  of  the  group  or  clan  taking  the  totem  name, 
and  owing  descent  to  the  anim^^fc^ 'represents,  is  descended 

[130]  ' 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF   RELIGION 

from  this  totem,  which  is  its  guardian  and  protector,  as  well 
as  the  source  from  which  it  originated.  In  some  instances  this 
animal  is  regarded  almost  as  a  deity,  though  this  is  not  often 
the  case. 

In  four  large  volumes,  of  a  total  of  more  than  two  thousand 
pages,  under  the  title  of  Totemism  and  Exogamy,  J.  G.  Frazer 
has  dealt  with  every  phase  of  this  subject.  He  shows  that  totem- 
ism  is  not  universal,  that  it  is  confined  to  certain  regions  and 
countries,  and  that  it  is  not  to  be  found  in  any  of  the  higher 
stages  of  civilization.  Frazer  finds  totemism  in  Australia,  New 
Guinea,  Melanesia,  Polynesia,  Indonesia,  India,  Africa  and 
America.  Outside  the  aborigines  of  these  regions  totemism  does 
not  exist,  except  in  some  possible  survivals  here  and  there. 

Frazer 's  definition  of  totemism  is  that  it  "is  an  intimate 
relation  which  is  supposed  to  exist  between  a  group  of  kindred 
people  on  the  one  side  and  a  species  of  natural  or  artificial  ob- 
jects on  the  other  side,  which  objects  are  called  the  totems  of 
the  human  group.  To  this  general  definition,  which  probably 
applies  to  all  purely  totemic  peoples,  it  should  be  added  that 
the  species  or  thing  which  constitute  a  totem  is  far  oftener 
natural  than  artificial,  and  that  amongst  the  natural  species 
which  are  reckoned  totems  the  great  majority  are  either  animals 
or  plants. ' '  The  origin  of  totemism  is  found  in  ignorance,  on  the 
part  of  such  peoples  as  the  natives  of  Australia,  as  to  the  causes 
of  childbirth,  it  being  assumed  by  them  that  the  child  comes  to 
the  mother  from  some  ancestral  center,  where  the  ghosts  of  the 
dead  are  waiting  to  be  reincarnated  again  in  human  form. 

With  much  trepidation  one  may  differ  from  an  investi- 
gator of  such  vast  knowledge  and  ample  resources  for  sociological 
interpretation  as  J.  G.  Frazer;  but  the  nature  of  totemism 
would  suggest  that  it  has  its  origin  in  animism,  and  in  the  rev- 
erence paid  to  animals  b£0t  peoples  who  have  any  of  them 

[131] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

living  in  their  immediate  environment.  Totemism  is  to  be 
found  only  in  regions  peopled  by  backward  races;  but  rev- 
erence for  animals  is  found  everywhere,  on  the  part  of  primitive 
peoples,  and  on  the  part  of  those  the  most  highly  civilized.  It 
seems  probable,  if  it  may  not  be  regarded  as  certain,  that  totem- 
ism  had  its  origin  in  the  animistic  manner  of  regarding  animals 
and  to  a  lesser  degree  plants,  as  possessing  powers  similar  to 
those  possessed  by  man,  and  as  having  magical  gifts  far  sur- 
passing any  that  man  possesses. 

This  means  that  totemism  is  merely  a  phase  of  the  reverence 
for  animals ;  but  its  special  characteristics  are  developed  when  a 
tribe  reaches  a  stage  of  social  organization  demanding  some 
means  of  designating  groups,  clans  or  genres,  not  only  for  the 
purpose  of  distinguishing  them  from  each  other  as  a  flag  dis- 
tinguishes a  nation ;  but  also  for  the  purpose  of  definitely  indi- 
cating those  who  may  marry  and  those  who  may  not  marry. 
Where  totemism  exists  it  is  a  practically  universal  rule  that 
those  of  the  same  totem  shall  not  marry,  as  that  a  bear  shall  not 
unite  with  a  bear  or  a  fox  with  a  fox.  This  rule,  called  that 
of  exogamy,  means  that  a  bear  may  marry  a  fox  or  some  one  of 
another  clan  within  the  tribe.  Generally,  but  not  invariably, 
totemism  and  exogamy  accompany  each  other.  Evidently, 
therefore,  the  reverence  for  animals,  and  the  idea  of  the  animal 
origin  of  groups,  is  made  use  of,  at  a  certain  stage  of  social 
development,  in  order  to  designate  those  who  belong  to  a  group, 
and  those  who  may  marry. 

Frazer  is  of  the  opinion  that  totemism  has  no  definite  con- 
nection with  religion,  and  in  this  he  is  probably  right.  How- 
ever, the  reverence  for  animals,  in  which  totemism  has  its  origin, 
has  an  intimate  relation  with  the  early  forms  of  religion,  and 
even  with  those  which  are  highly  advanced.  Thomas  says 
that  animal  worship  covers  facts  ranging  from  the  worship  of 

[132] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

the  real  divine  animal,  commonly  conceived  as  a  'god-body,'  at 
one  end  of  the  scale,  to  respect  for  the  bones  of  a  slain  animal 
or  even  the  use  of  a  respectable  name  for  the  living  animal  at  the 
other  end.  Certain  animals  are  regarded  as  sacred,  either  as 
individuals  or  as  a  total  species.  What  particular  form  the 
worship  shall  take,  or  what  shall  be  the  nature  of  the  cult  de- 
voted to  the  animal  or  animals  worshipped,  is  determined  by 
the  nature  of  the  society  worshipping  or  the  nature  of  the  ani- 
mals worshipped.  Pastoral  and  hunting  tribes  reverence  ani- 
mals in  ways  peculiar  to  their  social  development  or  their  man- 
ner of  securing  food,  that  is,  the  character  of  their  chief  in- 
dustry. Dangerous  animals  are  regarded  in  a  manner  quite 
different  from  those  which  have  been  domesticated,  and  have 
become  permanently  serviceable  to  man. 

Another  phase  of  the  reverence  for  animals  is  to  be  found 
in  the  respect  paid  to  them  when  they  are  killed  for  purposes 
of  food.  The  good-will  of  the  slaughtered  animals  is  sought, 
and  methods  of  propitiation  are  made  use  of  to  this  end.  Ani- 
mals are  offered  in  sacrifice  to  the  dead,  and  not  wholly  used 
for  the  benefit  of  the  living.  It  is  assumed  that  the  dead  de- 
pend on  food  as  when  they  were  living,  and  suitable  food  must 
be  provided  for  them  after  they  have  entered  the  other  world. 
To  this  end,  when  the  dead  are  buried,  food  is  placed  in  the 
grave,  that  the  ghost  may  be  sustained,  at  least  for  a  time.  Food 
may  be  placed  on  the  grave  at  regular  intervals  for  the  same 
purpose.  When  the  food  is  found  where  it  was  placed,  it  is 
said  that  the  ghost  consumes  only  the  aroma,  the  spiritual  sub- 
stance of  the  food,  and  that  its  material  part  remains.  The 
worshipper  may  consume  this  remainder,  and  he  may  eat  of 
a  communal  meal  on  the  grave,  sharing  the  food  with  the  ghost, 
and  even  with  the  higher  powers  who  may  desire  to  partake 
of  this  sustenance. 

[133] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  EELIGION 

Very  crude  are  these  means  of  communication  with  the 
dead,  and  these  helps  in  providing  for  their  wants.  When  a 
man  is  placed  in  the  grave,  if  he  has  been  a  warrior,  his  horse, 
weapons,  and  accoutrements  are  buried  with  him,  on  the  sup- 
position that  he  will  need  them,  and  use  them,  in  the  ghostland 
to  which  he  goes.  Assuming  also  that  he  will  not  wish  to  be 
companionless  there,  and  that  he  will  especially  desire  the  pres- 
ence of  his  wife  or  wives,  one  or  more  of  them  are  buried 
with  him  either  alive  or  slain,  that  they  may  accompany  him 
on  his  far  journey.  Since  he  is  a  chief  tan,  and  will  need  at- 
tendants, one  or  more  of  his  slaves  are  required  to  accompany 
him  into  the  other  world. 

Here  we  have  the  primary  origin  of  sacrifice,  in  the  pro- 
viding of  the  dead  with  the  food  and  the  services  which  they 
will  hereafter  require.  The  continued  offering  of  food  and  other 
gifts  on  the  grave  grows  from  stage  to  stage  into  the  providing 
of  similar  services  to  the  spirits  and  then  to  the  gods.  Since 
the  gods  at  first  are  either  deified  men  or  beings  having  the  same 
physical  needs,  food  is  brought  to  them  regularly,  and  such  other 
means  of  sustenance  as  it  may  be  thought  they  will  require,  in 
order  to  the  recuperation  of  their  powers  as  beings  of  mana  or 
orenda.  This  is  a  very  crude  and  materialistic  phase  of  the  de- 
velopment of  sacrifice,  but  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  its  savage 
beginnings  are  in  customs  as  crude  as  these.  A  lowly  origin 
of  this  kind  does  not  detract  from  the  higher  developments 
which  come  in  time;  but  the  recognition  of  them  enables  us  to 
comprehend  how  customs  of  this  nature  originate. 

IV 

Having  passed  in  brief  review  the  psychological  causes 
leading  to  the  development  of  religion,  as  well  as  its  successive 
stages  of  animatism,  animism,  animal  reverence  and  worship, 
totemism,  nature-worship,  mana,  tabu,  and  sacrifice,  we  are  now 

[134] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

prepared  to  consider  its  organized  forms  in  the  attempt  to  con- 
trol the  forces  in  the  environing  world  of  man.  The  first  of 
these  is  known  as  shamanism,  which  is  but  another  form  of 
magic,  though  magic  definitely  used  for  human  purposes.  The 
shaman  is  often  known  as  a  medicine-man,  and  this  name  de- 
scribes one  of  his  chief  functions.  In  the  cure  of  disease  the 
medicine-man  makes  use  of  magic  to  overcome  malign  influences 
working  against  the  patient;  and  he  employs  prayer  to  the 
benign  spiritual  powers,  in  order  to  secure  a  recovery  of  health. 
To  the  same  end,  rituals,  which  develop  potent  orenda,  are  made 
ase  of  frequently  in  the  more  advanced  phases  of  the  career  of 
the  medicine-man. 

The  great  center  of  what  is  known  as  shamanism  is  to  be 
found  in  Siberia,  and  it  is  indeed  from  that  region  the  name 
has  come  to  us,  though  it  is  of  European  origin,  but  as  applied 
to  conditions  existing  in  the  north  of  Asia.  The  most  elaborate 
account  of  this  form  of  religion  is  to  be  found  in  the  work  on 
Aboriginal  Siberia,  by  M.  A.  Czaplicka,  which  summarizes  the 
information  contained  in  numerous  Russian  volumes.  This 
author  attributes  shamanism  in  no  small  degree  to  the  climatic 
conditions  existing  in  Siberia,  with  its  intense  cold,  prolonged 
absence  of  the  sun,  fierce  snow-and  wind-storms,  and  the  hunger 
which  often  results  from  these  conditions.  These  conditions 
bring  on  hysteria,  resulting  in  paroxysms  of  nervous  strain,  and 
in  intense  excitement  and  complete  collapse.  The  peoples  of 
northern  Siberia  are  extremely  susceptible  to  nervous  excite- 
ment, and  unusual  noise,  prolonged  drumming,  fasting,  or  other 
similar  cause,  throwing  them  into  conditions  of  hysteria  or  pro- 
longed sleep.  Under  these  circumstances  they  acquire  their 
magical  powers,  and  feel  a  call  to  the  magician's  or  shaman's 
career.  On  this  subject  Czaplicka  says,  quoting  two  or  three 
Russian  investigators:  "To  the  believer  the  acceptance  of  the 

[135] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  EELIGION 

call  means  accepting  several  spirits,  or  at  least  one,  as  protectors, 
by  which  means  the  shaman  enters  into  communication  with  the 
whole  spirit  world.  The  shamanistic  call  manifests  itself 
through  some  animal,  plant,  or  other  natural  object,  which  the 
person  comes  upon  at  the  right  time,  i.  e.  when  very  young, 
often  in  the  critical  period  between  childhood  and  maturity  (or 
else  when  a  person  more  advanced  in  age  is  afflicted  with  mental 
or  physical  troubles).  Sometimes  it  is  an  inner  voice,  which 
bids  the  person  enter  into  intercourse  with  the  spirits.  If  the 
person  is  dilatory  in  obeying,  the  calling  spirit  soon  appears  in 
some  outward  visible  shape,  and  communicates  the  call  in  a 
more  explicit  way." 

Among  the  more  northern  tribes  of  Siberia  shamanism  is 
largely  limited  in  its  operations  to  the  family,  any  member  of 
which  may  exercise  its  functions  in  behalf  of  the  family  group. 
In  this  region  there  is  no  special  class  of  persons  devoted  to 
this  calling,  and  it  is  open  to  anyone  to  exercise  it.  Pro- 
fessional shamanism  is  only  in  its  infancy;  but  in  the  more 
southerly  region  it  has  become  a  stated  and  definite  profession. 
It  is  in  this  region  that  the  shaman  is  not  only  called,  but  he  is 
trained  by  other  shamans  for  the  exercise  of  his  functions.  The 
shaman  believes  himself  inspired,  and  he  uses  the  drum,  with  its 
monotonous  beat,  accompanied  with  song,  in  order  to  work  him- 
self into  that  hypnotic  or  ecstatic  attitude  of  mental  excitement 
in  which  he  is  able  to  exercise  the  functions  of  his  calling.  He 
uses  many  devices  for  impressing  his  audience,  and  for  giving 
them  confidence  in  his  powers.  The  medicine-man  of  aboriginal 
America  resorts  to  many  tricks,  sleight-of-hand  performances, 
forms  of  jugglery,  in  order  to  inspire  confidence  that  he  is  able 
to  bring  about  the  results  he  assures  his  hearers  or  patients  he 
is  capable  of  as  one  inspired. 

[136] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

There  can  be  no  doubt,  however,  that  the  shaman  believes  in 
his  wonderful  gifts ;  and,  though  he  may  use  deception  to  make 
an  impression,  not  one  whit  the  less  is  he  assured  that  he  is  in 
direct  communication  with  the  spirits,  and  that  they  give  him 
the  powers  he  possesses.  His  attacks  of  hysteria,  his  periods 
of  unconsciousness,  his  dreams  and  his  visions,  his  ability  to 
bring  about  auto-suggestion,  and  his  telepathic  power,  it  may 
be,  all  combine  to  give  him  the  utmost  confidence  in  his  inspira- 
tion by  the  spirits.  In  fact,  he  regards  himself  as  one  in  imme- 
diate communication  with  the  sp irit- world ;  and  the  means  to 
this  end  are  those  which  have  been  enumerated. 

Shamanism  and  magic  are  by  no  means  confined  to  Siberia, 
but  may  be  found  in  all  the  northern  regions  of  Asia  and  Europe, 
as  has  been  shown  by  Domenico  Comparetti  in  his  work  on  The 
Traditional  Poetry  of  the  Finns,  and  by  John  Abercromby  in 
The  Pre-  and  Proto-historic  Finns,  both  Eastern  and  Western, 
with  the  Magic  Songs  of  the  West  Finns.  All  the  Ugro-Finnic 
peoples  are  shamanists,  including  the  Lapps,  Siryanians,  Voty- 
aks,  Cheremisians,  Mordvinians,  Voguls,  Ostyaks,  and  others. 
The  Finns  were  also  shamanists,  and  they  did  not  wholly  discard 
this  practice  when  they  became  Christians.  A  large  degree  of 
faith  in  magic  continues  to  exist  in  the  religion  of  Russia. 

According  to  Comparetti,  shamanism  in  these  northern  re- 
gions "differs  from  other  religions  in  this:  that,  in  addition  to 
prayer  and  sacrifice,  it  believes  in  the  coercive  influence  which 
man  or  some  specially  endowed  men  (shamans)  exercise  by 
means  of  acts,  by  secret  operations,  or  by  words,  over  nature  or 
over  the  divine  or  demonic  beings  which  represent  and  rule 
nature.  Magic,  therefore,  which  in  other  religions  is  outside 
religion  and  contrary  to  its  spirit,  being  despised  as  superstition 
or  condemned  as  impiety,  is  in  shamanism  the  very  essence  of 
religion;  what  we  shall  call  the  magic  word  is  in  it  no  less 

[137] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

legitimate,  lofty  and  noble  than  are  the  hymn  and  the  prayer 
in  any  other  religion.  The  shaman  is  more  than  a  simple  priest, 
he  is  the  seer,  he  is  the  medicine-man,  he  is  wise  and  powerful 
above  all  others  and  is  capable  of  miraculous  actions.  With  his 
action  and  his  word  he  dominates  things  and  men  and  animals 
and  spirits;  he  cures  ills  or  prevents  them;  he  can  propitiate 
superior  beings  and  obtain  benefits;  can  ensure  good  luck  for 
the  hunt,  the  fishing,  the  journey;  can  raise  winds  and  storms 
and  clouds  and  fogs  and  tempests,  and  can  lay  them,  scatter 
them,  disperse  them;  he  can  transform  himself  and  others;  he 
can  rise  in  spirit  into  the  realms  of  air,  go  down  into  those  of  the 
dead  and  carry  off  their  secret. ' ' 

These  shamanistic  powers,  in  one  degree  or  another,  are  to 
be  found  in  connection  with  all  the  early  phases  of  religion 
and  in  every  part  of  the  world.  They  are  often  found  in  sur- 
vival into  quite  advanced  phases  of  civilization,  and  it  is  by  no 
means  certain  that  they  have  wholly  disappeared  from  those 
religions  which  are  the  most  advanced.  Nor  are  they  to  be 
found  only  in  connection  with  religion  and  the  art  of  healing. 
The  northern  peoples  of  Europe,  and  those  of  other  regions 
also,  saw  something  magical  and  shamaristic  in  song  and  poetry, 
music  and  the  dance.  Their  runes,  their  ballads,  and  especially 
their  epic  poems,  often  acquired  qualities  which  were  divine. 
Inspiration  in  any  form  or  in  regard  to  any  art  was  of  a  super- 
natural character,  the  result  of  the  incoming  of  some  god  into 
the  soul  of  the  singer,  poet,  or  musician.  The  Greeks  regarded 
love  in  this  manner,  and  thought  of  its  excitements,  its  absorp- 
tion in  infatuation  for  one  person,  its  forgetfulness  for  all  else 
than  its  own  object,  as  manifestations  of  a  demoniacal  presence. 
Infatuation,  excitement,  ecstacy,  absorption  in  one  object  or 
interest,  was  accepted  as  of  this  nature,  and  was  regarded  as 

[138] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  EELIGION 

proof  that  something  divine  had  entered  into  the  individual 
showing  any  of  these  symptoms. 

Conclusive  proof  has  now  been  afforded  for  the  origin  of 
the  aborigines  of  America  in  the  northeast  of  Asia,  and  it  is 
not  therefore  surprising  that  they  have  developed  many  of  the 
characteristic  features  of  Siberian  shamanism.  This  proof 
comes  in  considerable  measure  from  the  investigations  of  Ales 
Hrdlicka,  who  says  of  the  American  medicine-men  and  women, 
that  they  make  use  of  magic  prayers,  songs,  exhortation,  sug- 
gestion, ceremonies,  fetishes,  and  certain  specific  and  mechani- 
cal processes.  He  adds  that  these  persons  were  regarded  as 
the  possessors  of  supernatural  powers  that  enabled  them  to 
recognize,  antagonize,  or  cure  diseases.  They  might  make  use 
of  herbs  or  the  sweat-bath,  or  the  manipulation  of  parts,  or  other 
natural  curative  means ;  but  their  real  power  was  that  obtained 
through  magic,  that  is,  the  compelling  of  the  forces  of  the  spirit- 
ual world  to  accomplish  that  which  they  desired  to  bring  about 
for  the  benefit  of  the  sick. 

The  shaman,  magician  or  medicine-man  made  use  of  magic, 
which  may  be  best  described  as  mana  or  orenda;  and  he  ex- 
ercised his  gifts  largely  for  the  benefit  of  individuals.  While  his 
power  was  accepted  by  his  group,  and  its  members  made  use 
of  it  in  their  behalf,  he  did  not  acquire  it  from  his  fellows  or 
through  their  direct  sanctioning  of  his  gifts.  He  was  called  of 
the  spirits,  in  a  word,  his  power  was  individual,  and  exercised 
for  the  benefit  of  individuals.  It  might  also  be  used  to  injure 
others,  or  only  for  the  benefit  of  the  individual  making  use  of  it. 

Shamanism  may  be  regarded  as  a  development  of  the  social 
conditions  existing  before  social  organization  had  advanced  to 
the  clearly  defined  clan  and  tribe.  The  climatic  conditions  in 
Siberia  made  it  impossible  that  any  considerable  number  of 
persons  should  be  banded  together  in  one  group,  the  food-supply 

[139] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

forbidding  that  degree  of  social  advance.  The  same  conditions 
existed  in  the  northern  regions  of  America,  among  the  Dene 
and  the  Algonkins.  These  tribes  were  hunters,  roamed  over 
considerable  regions,  were  without  any  definite  tribal  organiza- 
tion, and  were  governed  by  a  head-man  or  chief.  They  were 
grouped  into  bands  rather  than  organized  into  tribes,  which 
might  increase  or  decrease  according  to  the  popularity  of  a 
chief  or  the  opportunities  for  securing  food.  It  is  such  peoples 
who  develop  shamanism,  though  it  may  extend,  through  survival, 
among  much  more  advanced  peoples.  Even  into  medieval  Eu- 
rope it  continued  as  a  social  force  of  no  small  importance,  and 
was  then  known  as  black  magic  if  it  was  used  for  individual 
evil  purposes,  and  as  white  magic  if  it  did  not  antagonize 
religion,  and  was  beneficently  employed. 

The  shaman  heals  the  sick,  foretells  the  future,  and  controls 
the  spirits;  but  it  is  the  priest  who  functions  as  the  leader  in 
the  rituals  of  religion.  In  The  Golden  Bough  Frazer  regards 
magic  or  shamanism  as  belonging  to  a  pre-religious  period  of 
human  culture,  and  describes  the  shaman  as  exercising  his  pow- 
ers in  behalf  of  the  individual  rather  than  the  social  group. 
When  the  priest  appears,  it  is  after  tribal  organization  has 
begun  to  develop,  and  he  acts  in  its  behalf.  He  does  not  deal 
in  magic,  as  does  the  shaman;  but  he  is  especially  concerned 
with  the  performance  of  those  dances,  ceremonies,  dramatic  in- 
terpretations of  myths,  which  take  the  form  of  religious  rituals. 
Since  these  ceremonies,  in  tribes  at  all  advanced  beyond  the 
most  primitive  forms  of  ritual,  are  likely  to  be  elaborate,  and 
of  considerable  extent,  to  include  many  songs,  festivals,  and 
ceremonials  of  various  kinds,  he  must  devote  much  time  to  their 
mastery,  and  become  a  tribal  functionary,  a  professional  inter- 
preter of  religion. 

[140] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

VII 

The  religious  rituals  of  primitive  peoples  are  dramatic 
representations  of  the  doings  of  the  spirits  and  the  gods,  and  by 
this  means  bringing  them  into  direct  contact  with  the  people, 
and  for  their  benefit.  As  Frazer  has  very  definitely  pointed  out, 
the  shaman  as  a  rule  employs  his  gifts  for  the  benefit  of  indi- 
viduals, but  the  priest  recites  his  rituals  for  the  aiding  of  the 
clan  or  the  tribe.  Religion  among  primitive  men  is  religious 
because  it  functions  socially,  and  for  the  reason  that  it  serves 
the  community  rather  than  the  individual.  As  the  priest  grows 
in  importance  to  the  group  he  serves,  the  shaman  becomes  of 
less  influence,  and  his  activities  become,  it  may  be,  more  and 
more  hidden,  occult,  and  evil  in  their  nature  and  methods.  In  his 
book  on  The  American  Indian,  Clark  Wissler  says  that  there 
takes  place  a  differentiation  of  the  priest  from  the  shaman 
wherever  ritualism  is  highly  developed.  Though  there  is  no 
rigid  demarkation  between  the  two,  yet  as  rituals  increase  in 
importance  there  comes  a  positive  separation  between  them,  and 
the  priest  grows  in  dignity  and  power. 

To  primitive  peoples  the  rituals  of  religion  are  the  myths 
interpreted  as  in  action.  Some  interpreters  of  myth  have 
claimed  that  all  myths  are  the  product  of  rituals,  that  is,  that 
the  ritual  is  first  developed  as  an  interpretation  of  the  acts  of 
spirits  and  gods,  and  that  the  myths  are  merely  these  actions 
put  into  narrative  form.  It  is  probable  that  some  myths  orig- 
inate in  this  manner,  being  first  acted,  and  then  narrated.  Other 
myths,  not  being  expressed  in  ritualistic  form,  cannot  originate 
as  this  theory  suggests.  A  myth  is  an  account  of  the  doings  of 
those  beings  which  we  have  seen  come  into  existence  through 
the  action  of  what  is  called  animism  or  the  recognition  of  all 
objects  in  nature  as  alive  and  acting  their  part  in  the  great 
drama  of  the  world's  existence.  The  definition  given  by  J.  N.  B. 

[141] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

Hewitt,  of  the  Bureau  of  American  Ethnology,  is  one  of  the 
most  explicit,  and  may  be  cited  here:  " Among  savage  tribal 
men  a  myth  is  primarily  and  essentially  an  account  of  the 
genesis,  the  function,  the  history,  and  the  destiny  of  a  human- 
ized fictitious  male  or  female  personage  or  being  who  is  a  per- 
sonification of  some  body,  principle,  or  phenomenon  of  nature, 
or  of  a  faculty  or  function  of  the  mind,  and  who  performs  his 
or  her  functions  by  imputed  inherent  orenda,  or  magic  power, 
and  by  whose  being  and  activities  the  inchoate  reasoning  of  such 
men  sought  to  explain  the  existence  and  the  operations  of  the 
bodies  and  the  principles  of  nature.  Such  a  being  or  personage 
might  and  did  personify  a  rock,  a  tree,  a  river,  a  plant,  the 
earth,  the  night,  the  storm,  the  summer,  the  winter,  a  star,  a 
dream,  a  thought,  an  action  or  a  series  of  actions,  or  the  ancient 
form  or  prototype  of  an  animal  or  bird." 

When  a  myth  was  dramatized  for  religious  purposes,  acted 
in  its  several  details,  presented  by  persons  disguised  by  masks, 
and  other  means  of  representing  the  spirits  or  gods  concerned 
in  the  myth,  it  became  a  ritual.  Such  a  ritual,  in  order  that 
it  might  serve  its  religious  purposes,  was  not  to  be  regarded  as 
a  dramatic  performance,  but  as  a  ceremonial  means  of  commu- 
nication with  the  supernatural  beings  represented  in  it.  Such 
ceremonial  had  a  magical  power,  and  the  representation  of  the 
spirits  or  gods,  had  the  effect  of  bringing  them,  as  it  were,  into 
the  presence  of  the  spectators,  and  of  securing  their  aid  for  the 
benefit  of  the  community.  The  magical  power  of  the  ritual  not 
merely  invoked  the  presence  and  support  of  the  gods,  but  com- 
pelled them  to  answer  the  prayers  of  the  community  as  voiced 
through  the  priest.  The  priest,  indeed,  was  the  man  or  woman 
who  could  thus  insure  the  beneficent  presence  of  these  super- 
natural beings,  and  their  being  made  subservient  to  the  com- 
munity's needs.  As  a  result,  the  priest  became  the  most  im- 

[142] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

portant  man  or  woman  in  the  tribe,  and  the  exercise  of  his 
powers  through  the  ritual  gave  him  a  large  and  commanding 
place  in  the  tribal  life. 

With  the  growth  of  religion  under  ritualistic  and  priestly 
influences  symbolism  became  a  more  and  more  important  feature 
of  it.  In  our  own  day  there  are  many  attempts  to  express  and 
interpret  what  is  spiritual  and  supernatural  by  means  of  sym- 
bols; but  they  have  largely  lost  their  significance  and  deeper 
meanings  for  the  life  of  our  time.  No  effort  to  revive  what  does 
not  belong  to  the  culture  of  a  period  can  be  more  than  tempor- 
arily and  spasmodically  successful.  Symbolism  belongs  to  the 
age  of  ritual,  to  the  days  of  the  priest,  that  is,  to  the  intellectual 
period  of  the  higher  type  of  animism.  Then  was  it  intimately 
bound  up  with  religion,  and  was  used  to  interpret  and  explain 
all  its  manifestations.  The  symbol  not  merely  represented  the 
god  in  outward  form,  but  made  sure  that  he  was  present  when 
he  was  needed.  This  is  what  gives  meaning  to  that  form  of 
animism  or  religion  known  as  fetishism.  Any  object  made  may 
become  a  fetish,  the  abode  of  a  spirit  or  a  god.  The  bundle  of 
most  miscellaneous  articles  tied  up  by  a  negro  of  Africa  into 
a  fetish  was  not  in  itself  anything  more  than  a  number  of  sticks 
and  other  objects;  but  the  spirit  came  into  it  and  remained 
there  for  the  benefit  and  the  protection  of  its  owner,  and  it 
became  of  great  importance.  Sticks  and  stones  as  such  had  no 
meaning  to  the  fetish-man,  but  when  a  powerful  spirit  was  pres- 
ent in  his  bundle  or  other  object  nothing  could  be  more  valuable 
to  him.  The  fetish  was  merely  the  symbol  of  the  presence  of  a 
powerful  spirit.  So  it  was  with  all  other  symbols,  that  they 
represented  a  power  of  magical  potence  brought  to  the  aid  of 
the  worshipper. 

If  we  study  the  several  peoples  of  America,  or  of  any  other 
continental  region,  we  shall  find  that  shamanism,  with  magic 

[143] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

as  its  basis,  presents  itself  amongst  the  most  backward  tribes, 
those  in  the  hunting  stage  or  those  inhabiting  inclement  and  un- 
propitious  regions.  As  we  move  forward  towards  the  more  ad- 
vanced tribes,  those  which  are  gaining  a  definite  form  of  social 
organization,  we  shall  find  religion  in  more  definite  forms,  tak- 
ing on  the  character  of  rituals  and  elaborated  ceremonials,  with 
a  priestly  class  for  their  presentation  and  interpretation.  Myths 
grow,  and  become  a  more  and  more  clearly  defined  statement 
of  the  actions  of  the  gods,  and  explain,  in  the  form  of  narratives 
of  the  doings  of  the  higher  spiritual  personages,  the  creation  of 
the  world  and  of  man,  the  origin  of  the  rituals,  the  advance  of 
the  different  phases  of  culture  and  the  advent  of  the  culture- 
hero  himself.  Sacrifices  become  more  numerous  and  more  effi- 
cacious, they  are  developed  into  great  systems  of  contact  with 
the  gods,  and  responses  to  their  needs.  Symbolism  grows,  and 
is  perfected  in  marvelous  ways.  Rituals  develop  apace,  and 
they  are  regarded  with  a  more  confident  faith.  As  yet  there  is 
no  creed,  no  dogmas,  except  those  which  find  expression  in  the 
symbols  and  the  rituals.  Man  does  not  think,  but  he  feels  and 
he  acts.  He  has  no  science,  but  he  does  have  symbolism  and 
ceremonial. 

Here  we  have  the  roots,  as  it  were,  of  religion.  Primitive 
enough,  surely,  but  all  the  possibilities  of  it  are  in  animism, 
symbolism,  and  ritual.  At  the  basis  we  find  man's  own  recog- 
nition of  his  mental  powers,  that  he  is  in  some  sense  a  being 
other  than  physical,  and  with  gifts  of  will,  creative  power,  ability 
to  master  the  world,  and  to  make  it  subservient  to  his  wishes.  If 
he  sees  himself  reflected  in  a  world  of  spirits  and  gods,  it  is  that 
he  may  bring  these  to  his  aid,  and  that  he  may  become  more  a 
man  than  is  possible  without  them. 

[144] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

VIII 

In  the  preceding  pages  it  has  been  suggested  that  the  de- 
veloping phases  of  religion  passed  in  review  have  a  positive 
effect  in  controlling  conduct.  Tabu  may  be  regarded  as  a  form 
of  moral  law,  and  exogamy  is  very  distinctly  a  method  regulat- 
ing marriage  and  the  relations  of  the  sexes.  The  initiations,  the 
secret  societies,  the  rituals,  and  the  manner  in  which  the  spirits 
are  regarded,  have  a  large  influence  on  individual  and  social 
conduct.  In  fact,  in  primitive  society  there  is  no  differentia- 
tion between  religion  and  ethics.  Ritual  makes  for  morality, 
and  morality  finds  its  origin  and  sanctions  in  religion. 

This  union  of  religion  and  ethics  is  a  result  of  the  distinctly 
communal  nature  of  all  social  development  in  tribal  communi- 
ties. Belief  and  conduct  to  the  man  of  the  tribe  are  not  separated 
as  they  are  in  modern  society.  Not  only  does  morality  develop 
with  religion  and  as  a  phase  of  it,  but  so  also  does  law  and 
jurisprudence.  It  is  true  that  nothing  of  positive  law  is  to  be 
found  in  tribal  society,  but  custom  is  varied  and  powerful,  and 
it  is  but  another  phase  of  religion.  Custom  is  the  practice,  the 
conduct,  of  the  tribe,  what  every  one  of  its  members  regards 
and  obeys  because  all  the  other  members  act  in  the  same  manner. 

Tabu  has  been  presented  as  of  a  religious  character,  as 
defining  what  is  sacred  and  what  is  evil  in  its  nature.  With  as 
much  truth  it  might  have  been  interpreted  as  a  law  defining 
conduct,  for  such  it  is  in  its  practical  results.  If  it  takes  a 
negative  form,  and  defines  what  may  not  be  done,  because 
sacred,  or,  on  the  other  hand,  unclean,  it  is  also  affirmative  as 
to  what  is  conducive  to  the  tribal  advantage.  It  must  be  rec- 
ognized also  that  totemism,  clan  organization,  and  many  an- 
other phase  of  tribal  society,  carries  with  it  rules  of  conduct 
for  the  clan  as  a  clan,  and  also  for  each  and  every  one  of  its 
individual  members. 

[145] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF   RELIGION 

In  this  regard  tribal  society  follows  other  ethical  rules  than 
those  known  in  modern  communities.  It  is  not  the  individual 
as  an  individual  who  is  required  to  obey  ethical  requirements, 
but  the  clan  itself.  That  is,  the  moral  law  of  the  clan  is  that 
of  custom,  the  traditional  and  collective  manner  of  conduct 
which  belongs  not  to  individuals  but  to  the  whole  fellowship. 
What  one  does  all  do,  the  custom  for  one  being  the  custom  fol- 
lowed by  every  member.  All  act  together,  in  the  same  spirit,  to 
the  same  ends. 

This  may  be  seen,  perhaps,  to  best  advantage  in  what  is 
known  as  the  blood-feud  in  the  higher  phases  of  tribal  life. 
This  custom  requires  that  all  the  members  of  a  clan  shall  be 
responsible  for  the  conduct  of  every  one  of  its  members.  All 
are  held  to  be  equally  guilty  for  any  act  committed  by  an  indi- 
vidual of  the  clan.  If  an  act  of  an  individual  member  of  a  clan 
has  done  an  injury  to  a  member  of  another  clan,  the  offended 
clan  requites  itself  on  any  member  of  the  offending  clan,  whether 
the  one  causing  the  injury  or  not.  It  is  not  so  much  the  indi- 
vidual as  the  clan  as  a  whole  which  is  responsible.  This  law 
is  that  of  an  eye  for  an  eye  and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth.  The 
offending  clan  is  punished  in  exactly  the  same  manner  and 
extent  as  was  the  nature  of  the  crime  committed. 

Custom  dominates  in  tribal  society,  therefore,  and  custom 
has  always  behind  it  the  sanction  of  the  ancestors  or  the  gods. 
Custom  is  law  in  its  first  stages,  but  law  intimately  unified 
with  religion,  which  prescribes  its  demands.  At  this  stage  in 
its  evolution  law  has  no  separate  existence,  and  does  not  know 
itself  as  law.  It  is  no  more  than  custom,  the  social  practice  of 
a  clan  or  a  tribe. 

While  the  ethical  life  of  the  clan  is  intimately  bound  up 
with  religion,  in  the  form  of  custom,  it  controls  every  phase 
of  the  life-  of  the  individual.  In  fact,  there  is  in  the  clan  no 

[146] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF   RELIGION 

individual  freedom  as  concerns  conduct,  and  every  departure 
from  custom  is  severely  punished,  either  by  beating,  mutiliation 
or  death.  In  all  the  more  advanced  tribes  something  in  the 
nature  of  commandments  or  a  code  may  be  found,  brief  but  ex- 
plicit statements  as  to  what  is  to  be  done  or  what  is  to  be  left 
undone.  These  brief  summaries  of  the  laws  of  conduct  often 
cover  many  or  all  of  the  ethical  demands  of  a  primitive  form 
of  society.  Some  of  them,  at  least,  might  be  very  well  enforced 
in  modern  communities,  so  fundamental  are  they. 


[147] 


CHAPTER  IV 

Feudal  Religion 

ONCE  again  it  needs  to  be  stated  that  religion  in  the  early 
ages  is  not  separated  from  the  other  phases  of  human 
life.  Differentiation  from  social  and  political  conditions,  from 
industries,  the  arts,  conduct,  and  other  phases  of  development, 
has  not  as  yet  taken  place.  Everything  that  is  human  is  con- 
cerned with  religion,  and  it  is  intimately  related  to  everything 
that  man  experiences.  The  hunt  is  prepared  for  with  religious 
ceremonies,  and  other  ceremonies  follow  the  hunter's  return. 
It  is  the  same  when  the  warrior  goes  forth  to  battle,  and  when 
he  returns  victorious  or  defeated.  When  the  ground  is  pre- 
pared for  the  seed,  and  when  the  seed  is  cast  into  it,  ritual  ob- 
servances are  required.  The  reaping  of  the  harvest  calls  for 
thanksgiving  and  festival,  often  of  an  elaborate  character. 
When  a  child  is  born,  when  it  is  named,  when  the  boy  or  girl 
is  initiated  or  married,  and  when  death  comes,  religion  is  in- 
voked to  give  its  sanctions.  Even  the  most  trivial  events  may 
lead  to  some  ritual  observance,  to  a  festival  when  the  gods  are 
invoked  or  to  a  prayer  for  guidance. 

What  this  means,  at  least  in  one  direction,  is  that  religion 
is  dependent  for  its  manifestations  on  the  industrial,  social, 
and  political  developments  of  a  people.  As  these  change  the 
religion  changes  to  meet  the  new  conditions.  The  religion  of 
a  hunting  band  or  group  is  other  than  that  of  a  pastoral  tribe 
or  an  agricultural  clan.  The  hunting  band  will  give  its  atten- 
tion chiefly  to  those  conditions  which  favor  the  capture  of  the 

[148] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  EELIGION 

animals  it  seeks,  and  its  rituals  will  be  of  a  nature  conducive 
to  that  end.  The  agricultural  clan  will  be  chiefly  concerned 
with  the  growing  of  an  abundant  harvest,  and  it  will  adapt  its 
ceremonials  and  its  rituals  to  bringing  about  that  result. 

In  the  study  of  early  religion,  therefore,  it  is  desirable 
that  recognition  should  be  given  to  occupations,  to  forms  of 
social  organization,  and  to  the  manner  in  which  a  group  de- 
velops its  customs  and  its  laws.  In  the  beginning  it  would  ap- 
pear that  man  is  dependent  for  his  food  supply  on  nature,  and 
he  gathers  such  plants  and  fruits  as  afford  him  subsistance. 
Since  he  evidently  began  his  career  in  tropical  lands,  he  could 
easily  subsist  in  this  manner.  The  gatherers  also  were  likely 
to  become  hunters,  for  nearly  everywhere  animals  are  found. 
When  he  moved  away  from  the  tropics  he  became  more  and 
more  dependent  on  hunting,  as  he  advanced  into  regions  re- 
mote from  the  abundant  natural  products  of  that  region.  As 
he  came  into  more  favorable  regions  he  became  a  tiller  of 
the  soil,  and  this  occupation  gave  him  the  opportunity  to  set- 
tle in  permanent  localities,  and  to  cease  from  the  life  of  the 
nomad.  As  in  India,  he  might  develop  a  village  community 
of  tillers  of  the  soil,  with  hunting  and  pastoral  conditions 
subsidiary  thereto.  The  village  might  grow  into  a  city,  with 
the  beginning  of  industries,  the  arts  and  commerce.  Or,  the 
development  might  take  the  form  of  bringing  together  groups 
into  a  tribe,  each  group  becoming  a  clan,  if  female  descent 
was  the  rule,  or  a  gentes,  if  male  descent  prevailed.  In  the 
formation  of  a  tribe  two  processes  appear  to  have  been  fol- 
lowed. The  one  resulted  when  the  group  became  too  large  for 
the  food-supply,  and  it  divided  into  two  or  more  groups,  each 
occupying  a  separate  territory,  but  continuing  as  far  as  pos- 
sible their  old  relations.  This  appears  to  have  been  the  process 
followed  in  the  formation  of  the  tribes  of  the  Iroquois.  The 

[149] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  EELIGION 

sub-groups  might  again  divide,  and  in  this  manner  from  two 
to  twenty  or  more  groups  might  be  formed.  The  bond  uniting 
these  groups  grew  to  be  in  time  that  of  blood-kinship,  and  the 
ties  this  constituted.  The  bond  of  blood,  kinship  or  hereditary 
descent  is  one  of  the  most  powerful  known  to  men,  and  it  acted 
very  effectively  in  the  formation  of  the  tribe  in  all  the  phases 
of  the  developing  life  of  early  communities.  Such  groups, 
united  by  the  kinship  tie,  grew  into  tribes  and  then,  it  may  be, 
into  a  city-state,  as  appears  to  have  been  the  case  in  Greece 
and  in  the  northern  Italy  of  the  mediaeval  era. 

The  other  process  in  the  formation  of  the  tribe  was  that 
of  separate  groups  gradually  coalescing  for  protection,  and 
for  the  promotion  of  their  common  interests.  This  was  the 
manner  in  which  the  forty  or  more  clans  of  the  Navaho  came 
together,  from  many  sources,  perhaps  even  from  tribes  speak- 
ing other  languages  than  the  Dene.  In  India  this  process  was 
followed,  as  well  as  in  Greece.  In  time  the  separate  groups 
might  become  so  far  welded  together  as  to  become  convinced 
of  their  common  origin,  and  to  insist  on  the  blood-bond  as 
existing  from  the  beginning. 

Briefly  we  have  explained  the  manner  in  which  tribes 
were  formed,  with  their  constituent  clans  or  gentes.  The  pro- 
cess of  coalescence  and  unification  did  not  stop  here,  however, 
but  went  on  to  far  higher  expressions.  When  the  tribe,  with 
its  communal  territory,  came  under  the  direction  of  a  chief, 
who  in  some  degree  was  regarded  as  a  representative  of  the 
ancestral  rulers  of  the  community  as  a  whole,  it  might  come  to 
pass  that  he,  in  the  name  of  the  tribe,  and  as  the  representative 
of  its  communal  interests,  would  become  the  putative  owner  of 
the  land,  all  the  members  of  the  tribe  becoming  in  some  degree 
his  subjects.  Under  these  conditions  feudalism  appears,  with 
its  attendant  domination  of  the  chief  over  all  other  members 

[150] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF   RELIGION 

of  the  community.  Under  him  would  be  subchiefs,  subject  to 
his  will ;  and  other  minor  officials,  enforcing  his  commands.  The 
great  mass  of  the  tribesmen,  however,  would  become  in  some 
degree  subordinate,  freemen  perhaps  or  mere  serfs,  bound  to 
the  soil.  What  we  have  to  note  is,  that  the  feudal  community 
grew  out  of  the  tribal,  and  that  it  carried  forward  to  higher 
issues  those  conditions  which  the  tribal  life  began. 


Feudalism,  even  in  its  higher  forms,  retained  very  much 
of  what  had  originated  in  the  tribe ;  and  it  may  be  regarded  as 
tribal  society  more  perfectly  organized,  and  reaching  towards 
that  which  is  political.  Owing  to  migration,  frequent  wars, 
the  development  of  the  early  stages  of  the  industries  and  com- 
merce, it  came  about  that  the  old  kinship  relations  were  some- 
times violently  broken  up,  and  in  other  instances  this  change 
came  about  quite  slowly ;  but  in  one  way  or  another  geograph- 
ical relations  were  established  in  place  of  those  which  origin- 
ated in  the  family.  War  in  itself  had  little  other  effect  than 
that  of  destruction;  but  one  of  the  consequences  which  fol- 
lowed from  it  was  that  the  old  kinship  ties  were  disrupted,  and 
men  were  thrown  together  who  were  not  of  the  same  family 
or  clan,  and  found  it  necessary  to  live  together  as  best  they 
could.  Migration  in  some  instances  had  the  same  effect.  In 
these  and  other  ways  it  came  about  that  communities  were 
formed  on  another  basis  than  that  of  kinship,  namely,  that  of 
geographical  proximity  or  the  fact  of  living  on  the  same  ter- 
ritory, and  being  more  or  less  dependent  on  each  other.  At  first 
they  might  pretend  to  an  origin  in  some  putative  ancestor,  and 
such  could  be  readily  devised  for  the  occasion. 

[151] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

Gradually,  however,  it  came  about  that  territory  in  itself 
became  the  basis  of  social  and  political  union,  and  the  ties  of 
family  ancestry  and  clan  organization  were  broken  down.  It 
was  a  very  slow  process  by  which  tribal  was  developed  into 
political  society.  It  required  hundreds  of  years  to  bring  about 
the  change;  and  in  its  more  pronounced  phases  this  develop- 
ment is  known  as  feudalism.  Found  wherever  the  tribe  has 
given  way  to  the  state,  the  process  has  been  greatly  varied  in 
different  parts  of  the  world.  In  some  regions  it  would  seem 
that  it  has  been  wholly  the  result  of  conquest,  and  the  process 
of  the  subjection  of  one  tribe  to  another.  Elsewhere  it  would 
appear  to  have  been  wholly  the  product  of  migration,  and  the 
gradual  coalescence  of  peoples  by  the  mixing  process  which  re- 
sulted. In  other  regions  it  may  have  been  the  result  of  the 
diffusion  of  culture  conditions,  the  spread  of  ideas,  and  the 
extension  of  the  processes  making  for  civilization. 

However  feudalism  was  brought  about,  it  includes  several 
marked  phases,  and  among  them  the  development  of  the  chief 
of  a  democratic  community  into  an  autocratic  lord,  with  con- 
trol over  the  lives  and  fortunes  of  his  subjects;  the  ownership 
of  the  land  occupied  by  the  community  on  the  part  of  this 
chief  or  king,  and  the  right  to  portion  it  out  to  his  subjects; 
and  the  king  as  lawmaker,  leader  of  the  tribal  armies,  with 
the  right  to  determine  war  whenever  it  might  please  his  auto- 
cratic will  to  do  so.  One  phase  of  this  process  was  the  de- 
velopment of  a  class  devoted  to  war  almost  exclusively.  In 
connection  with  these  developments  there  usually  followed  a 
distinctive  type  of  social  custom,  a  large  degree  of  progress 
in  song  and  ballad  and  lyric,  the  creation  of  new  forms  of  art, 
and  an  added  emphasis  on  ritual  and  all  forms  of  ceremonial 
in  the  domain  of  religion.  As  the  chief  or  king  became  an 
autocrat,  so  did  the  priest  become  the  bishop  or  overseer  of 

[152] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

priests.  In  both  the  secular  and  the  sacred  fields  of  develop- 
ment authority  greatly  increased,  society  was  organized  with 
marked  elaborateness,  grades  of  classes  were  slowly  estab- 
lished, with  all  power  in  the  hands  of  the  rulers,  while  the 
great  body  of  the  people  were  subject  to  the  autocratic  will  of 
those  above  them. 

This  phase  of  social  and  political  progress  did  not  appear 
everywhere;  and  in  some  favored  regions,  such  as  the  Greek 
lands,  this  era  of  advancement  from  the  tribe  to  the  state  was 
marked  by  the  growth  of  village  communities  and  then  by  the 
appearance  of  the  city-state.  Even  in  Greece,  however,  the 
other  type  of  feudalism  appeared,  as  it  is  presented  in  the  pages 
of  the  Iliad.  It  is  true  that  feudalism  of  the  distinctive  type 
did  not  work  itself  out  to  the  extent  in  which  it  appeared 
in  western  Europe,  and  it  did  not  last  for  as  prolonged  a  per- 
iod or  so  it  would  seem  from  the  imperfect  knowledge  we  have 
of  this  stage  in  Greek  culture.  It  would  appear,  also,  that  it 
came  at  an  earlier  period,  and  was  more  quickly  succeeded  by 
the  growth  of  the  city  communities. 

With  these  changes  in  communal  and  industrial  organiza- 
tion religion  took  on  new  forms,  and  the  spirits  or  gods  ac- 
quired fresh  attributes.  Not  all  processes  of  development, 
however,  took  the  precise  directions  here  indicated,  and  we 
must  for  a  time  turn  aside  to  consider  other  phases  of  social 
and  religious  progress.  One  of  these  had  its  origin  in  the  more 
distinctly  industrial  developments  of  early  communities.  The 
discovery  or  invention  of  the  simplest  arts,  what  Tylor  has 
called  the  "arts  of  life,"  such  as  pottery,  weaving,  tanning,  and 
the  cultivation  of  the  soil,  led  to  results  of  the  greatest  im- 
portance. 

[153] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

II 

Much  discussion  has  been  indulged  in  with  regard  to  what 
Bachofen  called  the  matriarchate,  and  what  is  now  generally 
known  as  mother-right.  To  understand  how  this  form  of 
society  took  its  origin  we  must  briefly  review  again  the  several 
stages  in  social  and  industrial  development.  Frequently  it  has 
been  asserted  that  female  descent  or  mother-right  was  the 
earliest  form  of  society  known  to  humanity,  and  traces  of  it 
have  been  sought  for  amongst  all  early  peoples.  The  evidence, 
however,  does  not  bear  out  this  theory,  and  indicates,  if  it 
does  not  prove,  that  mother-right  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  a 
universal  stage  in  human  evolution,  and  that  it  is  by  no  means 
to  be  found  in  connection  with  all  primitive  communities.  It 
results  from  industrial  conditions,  and  it  is  not  likely  to  appear 
until  these  have  prepared  the  way.  As  we  have  already  seen 
to  have  been  the  case,  man  began  his  career  as  a  gatherer  or 
as  a  hunter.  Under  these  conditions  the  form  of  social  organ- 
ization was  that  of  control  by  a  headman  or  chief  of  the 
persons  gathered  into  a  band.  In  this  band  the  father  was  the 
ruler  of  the  family,  and  his  will  was  law  within  its  limits, 
both  over  wife  or  wives  and  children.  This  form  of  society 
may  be  described  as  the  paternal.  It  is  found  widely  in  Si- 
beria, in  the  northern  parts  of  America,  and  in  many  other 
regions  where  the  chief  means  of  the  food-supply  is  hunting, 
the  keeping  of  reindeer  or  other  similar  occupation  requiring 
the  active  exertion  of  the  energies  of  men. 

When  men  were  occupied  as  gatherers  and  hunters,  in 
such  regions  as  made  it  possible,  women  became  the  first  tillers 
of  the  soil.  This  conclusion  is  now  nearly  universally  accepted 
by  anthropologists,  and  by  the  students  of  the  early  forms  of 
the  industrial  life.  Probably  it  was  not  by  design  or  through 

[154] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

inventive  skill,  that  women  found  they  could  place  seeds  in 
the  ground,  and  secure  a  harvest  near  their  huts  or  tipis.  This 
knowledge  was  probably  the  result  of  a  happy  accident,  in 
connection  with  the  other  activities  of  women;  and  it  was  ar- 
rived at,  probably,  in  several  different  regions.  This  discovery 
or  invention,  whichever  we  may  choose  to  call  it,  had  results 
of  the  greatest  importance  for  the  developing  life  of  mankind ; 
and  for  religion,  as  well. 

In  many  parts  of  the  world,  when  women  began  to  pro- 
duce plants,  and  thus  to  supplement  the  labors  of  men  as  gather- 
ers and  hunters,  results  followed  that  were  of  large  social  sig- 
nificance. One  of  these  was  that  the  product  of  their  labors 
belonged  to  the  women,  and  that  they  became  the  owners  of 
the  soil,  its  produce,  the  granaries  in  which  the  results  of  their 
toil  were  stored,  and  also  of  the  houses  in  which  they  lived 
with  their  husbands  and  children.  Under  these  circumstances, 
the  woman  asked  the  man  to  live  with  her  and  to  share  in  her 
labors  and  her  possessions.  She  became,  consequently,  in 
many  tribes,  the  head  of  the  family,  descent  being  reckoned 
through  her,  her  children  inheriting  her  property,  and  more 
especially  this  was  true  of  her  daughters.  The  Iroquois  and 
the  Zuni  in  North  America,  the  Khasis  of  Assam,  and  the 
Nayars  of  India,  are  instances  of  such  mother-right  peoples. 

To  what  extent  mother-right  existed  in  early  India,  Baby- 
lonia, Syria,  Anatolia  or  Asia  Minor,  Egypt,  and  Greece  it  is 
impossible  to  say  with  historic  definiteness.  Many  anthro- 
pologists believe  that  it  did  exist  at  an  early  time  in  all  these 
regions,  and  that  its  presence  had  a  determining  influence  on 
the  development  of  religion.  Many  phases  of  the  growth  of 
customs  in  these  and  other  lands  can  be  best  explained  by  the 
supposition  that  mother-right  once  existed  there.  We  know 
that  widely  in  tribal  society  women  took  part  in  the  rituals  of 

[155] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  EELIGION 

religion,  having  the  same  right  as  men  to  fill  the  offices  of 
shaman,  priest  and  prophet.  While  they  were  rigidly  excluded 
from  the  ceremonials  of  religion  in  many  regions,  this  was 
rarely  the  case  where  any  form  of  mother-right  had  come  into 
existence. 

Under  the  conditions  of  mother-right,  or  something  kin- 
dred to  it,  there  appeared  mother-gods  or  goddesses ;  and  these 
were  numerous  and  powerful  in  the  ancient  world.  We  have 
already  had  occasion  to  mention  Ishtar,  the  great  mother-god- 
dess of  Babylonia  and  Syria.  In  some  respects  the  greatest,  or, 
it  may  be  truer  to  say,  the  best  beloved  of  the  Egyptian  gods, 
was  Isis,  partly  because  of  her  motherhood  and  her  relations 
to  Horus.  The  Great  Mother  of  Asia  Minor  was  the  leading 
divinity  of  Lycia,  Lydia,  and  the  neighboring  lands.  Athena 
was  the  protecting  divinity  of  the  city  of  Athens,  and  in  this 
capacity  was  preferred  to  all  the  other  gods. 

One  of  the  reasons  why  most  of  the  mother-gods  may  be 
assumed  to  have  originated  in  the  conditions  attendant  upon 
the  cultivation  of  the  soil  by  women,  is  that  they  were  either 
personifications  of  the  earth  or  of  the  plants  cultivated  by 
women.  All  the  cereals  and  fruits  of  the  early  time  were  re- 
garded as  the  abodes  of  a  mother-spirit  or  goddess,  as  mother- 
corn  or  mother-rice.  In  some  regions  wheat  or  maize  or  rice 
were  received  as  in  themselves  mother-divinities,  and  in  others 
a  goddess  gave  origin  to  them,  and  gave  them  into  the  care  of 
the  women  who  cultivated  them.  Such  myths  as  these  are  not 
likely  to  have  originated  except  under  conditions  which  made 
them  historical  or  descriptive  of  actual  events.  When  women 
cultivated  the  cereals  or  fruits  indigenous  to  the  several  reg- 
ions of  the  earth,  it  is  natural  that  they  should  animistically 
ascribe  divine  powers  to  those  plants  with  which  they  came 
into  intimate  relations,  and  on  which  their  tribes  were  closely 


[156] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

dependent.  Any  other  explanation  of  the  origin  of  these  god- 
desses, with  their  agricultural  settings,  in  nearly  all  instances, 
seems  to  be  quite  wide  of  the  mark  as  a  genuine  interpretation. 

Another  phase  of  this  development  is  to  be  found  in  con- 
nection with  the  animistic  or  anthropomorphic  conception  of 
the  earth  as  a  great  divinity  or  mother-goddess.  Widely  over 
the  world  this  interpretation  of  the  relations  of  the  earth  to 
the  needs  of  man  is  to  be  found.  The  cereals  and  the  fruits 
cultivated  by  women  grow  out  of  the  earth,  therefore  to  the 
primitive  mind  it  was  natural  to  regard  the  earth  as  a  mother, 
the  nurse  and  nourisher  of  all  who  live. 

The  earth  as  a  Divine  Mother  was  united  to  the  sky  or 
sun  as  a  Divine  Father.  The  earth  gave  to  men  an  abode,  the 
food  which  enabled  them  to  live,  and  the  nurturing  care  of  a 
world  goodly  and  beneficent.  The  sun  and  sky  made  the  earth 
fruitful  with  light  and  heat,  rain  and  dew.  Therefore  they 
stood  in  the  relations  to  each  other  of  husband  and  wife,  and 
to  all  earthly  creatures  in  that  of  father  and  mother.  In  many 
regions  this  relation  is  to  be  found  in  myth,  in  legend,  in  rit- 
ual and  in  belief.  Even  in  the  highest  religions  may  be  found 
survivals  of  this  belief;  it  is  frequently  found  in  art  and 
poetry,  and  is  not  wholly  absent  from  philosophy. 

The  myth-making  capacity  of  early  peoples  for  personi- 
fying the  earth,  and  the  cereals  which  grow  out  of  it,  by  no 
means  interprets  every  phase  of  the  growth  of  goddesses  in 
the  early  religions.  While  it  is  true  that  this  phase  of  religious 
development  is  largely  connected  with  the  cultivation  of  the 
soil  by  women,  it  has  also  its  incentive  in  the  facts  resulting 
from  the  relations  of  the  sexes  in  courtship  and  marriage. 
Such  myths  assume  that  the  process  of  creation  is  a  process  of 
generation,  and  that  man  owes  his  parentage  to  the  intimate 
relations  of  Father  Heaven  and  Mother  Earth.  In  the  United 

[157] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

States  and  Canada  many  tribes,  which  are  not  yet  advanced  to 
the  industrial  stage  of  the  cultivation  of  the  soil,  have  the  myth 
of  the  two  divine  parents.  The  intimate  relations  of  the  sun 
or  sky  to  the  earth  are  such  that  even  the  primitive  man  and 
woman  must  have  come  to  recognize  them;  and  this  would 
naturally  lead  to  the  conception  of  them  as  the  great  begetters, 
the  father  and  mother  of  all  who  live.  In  the  stage  of  advance- 
ment when  women  were  beginning  the  cultivation  of  the  cere- 
als, this  relation  would  obtain  added  recognition  and  convinc- 
ing proof. 

In  many  of  the  more  advanced  tribes  of  America  the  wor- 
ship of  Heaven  and  Earth  may  be  found,  and  in  Mexico  and 
Peru  this  belief  had  developed  to  a  high  stage  of  perfection. 
In  the  first  volume  of  his  History  of  the  New  World  called 
America,  Edward  John  Payne  says  of  the  worship  of  the  earth 
"The  motherhood  of  the  earth  was  in  aboriginal  America  no 
mere  figure  of  speech,  but  an  article  of  positive  belief.  In 
Peru  it  was  so  far  a  matter  of  universal  faith  that  every  tribe 
could  point  to  a  place  where  its  ancestor  had  actually  emerged 
from  the  soil.  The  earth,  however,  was  qhiefly  worshipped, 
both  in  Peru  and  in  Mexico,  as  in  the  Old  World,  as  the  uni- 
versal provider  of  subsistence.  By  the  Mexicans  she  was 
called  'mother  of  the  gods'  (Teteoinnan)  and  'our  grand- 
mother' (Tocitzin).  .  .  .  The  great  mother  is  everywhere  at 
hand.  .  .  .  For  the  same  reason  [in  Peru]  Pachamama  was  not 
usually  worshipped  in  temples.  The  world  of  animated  things 
is  her  temple :  the  upper  world  or  firmament  is  its  roof,  the  un- 
derworld its  foundation." 

In  western  Africa,  in  Polynesia,  in  Indonesia,  and  in 
Japan,  China,  and  India,  this  worship  of  Heaven  and  Earth 
as  a  wedded  pair  is  to  be  found.  In  India  they  are  known  in 
the  earliest  times  as  Dyaus-pitar  (the  Jupiter  of  Roman  myth- 

[158] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF   RELIGION 

ology)  and  as  Prithivi;  and  these  names  reappear  in  many  of 
the  Aryan  languages.  Gods  and  men  alike  are  born  of  this 
divine  pair  by  the  process  of  generation.  In  early  Greece,  ac- 
cording to  Hesiod,  this  pair  was  Uranus  and  Gaia ;  and  he  says 
that  all  the  deathless  gods  were  born  of  Earth  and  starry 
Heaven.  In  Egypt,  where  mother-right  in  large  degree  pre- 
vailed to  a  later  date  than  the  conquest  of  that  land  by  the 
Romans,  the  earth  was  the  primal  male  deity,  Seb ;  and  heaven 
was  the  female  divinity,  Nut.  On  the  primal  waters  before 
creation  they  were  married  to  each  other,  and  from  them  came 
all  things  that  are. 


Ill 

Heaven  and  Earth  were  regarded  by  many  peoples  as  not 
merely  animistic  or  anthropomorphic  deities,  but  as  the  prim- 
ary principles  in  the  universe.  This  may  be  seen  finding  em- 
phatic expression  in  China,  where  they  are  known  as  Yang 
and  Yin,  the  fundamental  types  of  life,  the  great  energizing 
principles  in  all  existence.  J.  J.  M.  de  Groot,  in  his  lectures 
on  The  Religion  of  the  Chinese,  says  of  these  principles : 
"The  oldest  and  holiest  books  of  the  empire  teach  that  the  uni- 
verse consists  of  two  souls  or  breaths,  called  Yang  and  Yin, 
the  Yang  representing  light,  warmth,  productivity,  and  life, 
also  the  heavens  from  which  all  these  things  emanate ;  and  the 
Yin  being  associated  with  darkness,  cold,  death,  and  the 
earth."  In  his  lectures  on  The  Religion  of  China,  de  Groot 
explains  that  Yang  is  male  and  Yin  female,  and  that  they 
respectively  represent  man  and  woman. 

These  two  energies  are  largely  of  the  nature  of  mana  and 
orenda,  lacking  in  distinct  personification,  forces  rather  than 
persons.  According  to  the  Li  Ki,  however,  man  is  the  result 

[159] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

of  the  union  of  Heaven  and  Earth ;  and  here  it  would  seem  that 
they  partake  in  considerable  degree  of  individuality.  Under 
the  influence  of  Taoism  they  became  actually  deified,  and  ap- 
pear as  gods  rather  than  as  creative  principles.  What  is  to 
be  noted,  however,  is  that  these  two  principles  are  the  male 
and  female  parts  of  the  universe,  that  their  union  has  given 
origin  to  all  which  exists,  that  they  are-  never  separate  from 
each  other,  and  that  they  in  union  are  at  the  sources  of  the 
individual  human  being,  as  they  are  of  the  whole  universe,  in 
all  its  parts. 

Essentially  the  same  animistic  conception  is  to  be  found 
in  India,  where  purusha  is  the  male  principle  and  prakriti  the 
female  principle.  When  they  are  personified  or  deified  they 
become  Heaven  and  Earth,  though  they  always  remain  the 
primary  manifestations  of  mind  and  matter.  In  many  of  the 
Hindu  philosophies  it  is  this  union  of  mind  (or  spirit)  and 
matter  which  constitutes  the  fundamental  basis  of  the  uni- 
verse. In  his  History  of  Aryan  Medical  Science,  Bhagvat  Sinh 
Jee  says  that  the  Hindu  doctrine  of  creation  is  the  result  of  the 
coming  together  of  Purusha  and  Prakriti,  spirit  and  matter. 
He  adds  that  spirit  is  infinite,  immortal,  sentient,  and  bliss- 
ful; but  that  matter  is  lifeless,  though  possessed  of  creative 
force  and  properties  of  goodness,  passion,  and  apathy.  Some 
Hindu  philosophers  are  of  the  opinion  that  matter,  the  female 
principle,  is  without  energy  or  creative  power,  that  its  union 
with  spirit  is  essential  to  any  productiveness  on  its  part. 
Others  are  of  the  opinion  that  matter  is  merely  an  illusion, 
with  no  reality  in  itself,  and  that  it  becomes  creative  only 
when  in  union  with  spirit.  And  yet  others  deny  all  real  exist- 
ence to  spirit,  and  find  in  matter  the  one  real  power  in  the 
universe.  Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  all  modern  philosophies 
found  an  existence  in  early  India,  and  often  in  forms  more 

[160] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

logical  and  effective  than  those  of  their  modern  co-workers  in 
the  fields  of  speculation. 

Some  of  the  Hindu  thinkers,  as  Bhagvat  Sinh  Jee  informs 
us,  are  convinced  that  Prakriti  or  Nature  (and  not  merely  mat- 
ter) is  the  cause  of  all  things,  and  the  one  universal  material 
cause  (prima  matrix).  A  much  larger  number  of  them,  how- 
ever, assign  creative  power  to  Purusha,  spirit  or  soul,  which 
is  essentially  the  creative  force  in  the  world  of  man  and  of 
nature.  In  the  human  world  the  origin  of  life  comes  from 
Purusha,  as  the  father  principle,  the  principle  which  is  cre- 
ative. On  the  other  hand  the  mother  is  Prakriti,  the  receptive 
principle,  that  by  means  of  which  the  child  is  nourished  and 
given  its  life. 

In  Babylonia  it  is  probable  that  in  the  very  early  time 
every  god  was  accompanied  by  a  goddess,  who  was  his  counter- 
part, and  in  the  truest  sense  his  helpmate.  In  the  later  period 
the  goddesses  declined  in  importance,  and  became  the  mere 
shadows  or  reflections  of  the  gods.  Through  many  centuries 
of  the  Babylonian  religion  a  radical  change  went  on,  which 
resulted  in  the  concentration  of  all  the  feminine  qualities  in 
Ishtar,  who  became  in  a  supreme  sense  a  mother-goddess,  the 
mate  of  all  the  other  gods,  or,  rather,  the  source  and  origin  of 
them  all.  In  the  beginning  Ishtar  was  a  goddess  of  fertility, 
the  reproductive  principle  in  supreme  expression;  but  with 
the  development  of  the  military  spirit  in  that  land,  she  became 
a  warrior,  the  type  or  symbol  of  war  and  the  fighting  spirit. 

Whether  in  Babylonia  as  Ishtar,  in  Phoenicia  as  Astarte, 
or  by  other  names  in  the  other  Semitic  lands,  this  goddess  re- 
presented primarily  the  great  principle  of  fertility,  reproduc- 
tion, and  the  generational  succession  throughout  the  ages.  The 
individual  passes,  but  the  race  continues;  and  it  is  because  of 
this  principle  of  reproduction,  the  genetic  form  of  life,  personi- 

[161] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

fied  as  a  great  mother,  that  this  is  true.  In  Syria,  Arabia,  the 
Hittite  land,  Anatolia,  Egypt  and  Greece  this  feminine  princi- 
ple of  fertility  had  recognition  as  that  which  is  primary  to  all 
other  energizing  forces.  The  gods  in  time  may  become  su- 
preme, but  in  all  the  ancient  world  this  tradition  of  the  su- 
premacy of  the  feminine  principle  was  never  wholly  forgotten. 
From  time  to  time  there  was  a  renewed  recognition  of  the  idea 
that  motherhood  is  the  one  eternal  creative  force,  the  great 
energizing  power  in  the  universe. 

In  the  early  religions  and  philosophies  of  Greece  we  find 
this  principle  of  sex  working  out  in  a  form  possibly  somewhat 
different  from  that  expressed  elsewhere.  The  primary  concep- 
tion of  the  union  of  two  great  principles  reappears  in  all  its 
strength  and  universality;  but  they  are  placed  in  opposition 
to  each  other,  rather  than  being  regarded  as  one  in  their  prim- 
ary union.  Through  the  union  of  principles  which  act  con- 
trary to  each  other,  are  in  opposition,  and  even  antagonize  each 
other,  the  work  of  generation  proceeds,  and  by  means  of  the 
processes  of  creation.  The  operation  of  these  antagonistic 
principles  is  not  one  of  destruction,  but  one  of  creation;  and 
they  therefore  generate  through  their  very  antagonism  the 
whole  world  of  things  and  beings  known  to  man.  In  particular, 
we  can  discern,  says  Francis  Macdonald  Cornford,  in  his  From 
Religion  to  Philosophy,  "that  the  prototype  of  all  opposition 
or  contrariety  is  the  contrariety  of  sex."  This  appears  in  the 
mythological  separation  of  Heaven  and  Earth,  which,  though 
they  co-operate  in  the  process  of  creation,  are  more  or  less 
distinctly  in  opposition  to  each  other,  not  only  in  their  essen- 
tial nature,  but  in  their  creative  activities.  In  the  very  be- 
ginning there  was  chaos  or  an  undifferentiated  mass,  without 
internal  boundaries  or  limits.  This  primeval  chaos  separated 
into  two  parts,  which  were  in  their  fundamental  nature  op- 

[162] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

posed  to  each  other,  and  they  became  male  and  female. 
Through  the  intervention  of  Eros,  these  two  were  united  and 
reconciled,  and  by  birth  gave  origin  to  gods,  men,  and  things. 

This  brief  survey  of  the  manner  in  which  sex,  and  the 
activities  of  women,  were  regarded  in  the  early  civilization 
may  call  for  some  interpretation  as  to  how  they  originated, 
and  why  they  disappeared  from  the  higher  phases  of  ancient 
religion  and  philosophy.  The  active  cause  is  to  be  found  in 
the  creative  forces  establishing  social  institutions,  and  those 
other  causes  at  work  for  their  gradual  modification.  As  al- 
ready suggested,  when  women  were  developing  the  primary 
arts,  agriculture,  and  the  basic  moralities  of  home  and  family 
life,  it  came  about  that  the  feminine  creative  principle  was  in 
the  ascendent  in  all  processes  of  cosmic  and  human  interpreta- 
tion. They  continued  to  operate  in  behalf  of  women  until 
there  was  developed  a  dominating  activity  of  men,  through  the 
growth  of  slavery,  war,  and  the  autocratic  principle. 

While  the  industrial  separation  of  the  sexes  continued, 
largely  the  result  of  the  division  of  labor  between  them,  men 
devoting  themselves  to  hunting,  the  care  of  domesticated 
animals,  and  to  war;  women  to  the  primary  arts,  and  to  the 
cultivation  of  the  soil,  which  probably  in  large  degree  gave 
origin  to  the  idea  of  their  opposition  and  antagonism,  there 
was  a  large  measure  of  freedom  for  women,  and  mother-right 
continued  in  active  operation.  When  men  gave  to  their  cap- 
tives the  task  of  cultivation,  thereby  largely  increasing  the 
permanent  food-supply;  and  when  war  became  largely  the  oc- 
cupation of  the  superior  class  among  men,  with  the  result  that 
all  other  members  of  the  community  were  brought  into  sub- 
jection to  them,  there  gradually  came  about  a  change  from 
maternal  to  paternal  descent,  the  ownership  of  land  and  house 
by  men,  the  passing  of  the  woman  on  marriage  into  the  house- 

[163] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

hold  of  her  husband,  and  her  being  held  as  in  his  hand,  to  use 
the  Latin  term,  implying  that  she  was  in  the  fullest  sense 
subject  to  his  will  and  authority.  In  China  and  in  Rome  this 
change  in  the  organized  forms  of  society  became  in  the  largest 
degree  dominant  and  universal.  In  other  countries  it  did  not 
reach  the  same  logical  subjection  of  the  woman  to  the  dominat- 
ing will  of  the  man.  However,  under  every  form  of  what  has 
been  called  patriarchalism,  the  woman  has  been  regarded  as 
inferior,  and  as  needing  to  be  controlled.  This  change  in  the 
status  of  women  led  to  a  change  in  the  relations  of  the  god- 
desses to  the  gods;  and  in  all  patriarchal  lands  the  goddesses 
became  subordinate  to  the  gods,  were  merged  in  them,  or 
wholly  disappeared. 

We  have  seen  that  in  China,  India,  and  elsewhere,  the 
feminine  principle  is  connected  with  the  earth,  that  it  is  in 
some  measure  regarded  as  inferior  to  the  masculine  principle, 
in  as  much  as  that  it  is  symbolized  by  matter,  while  the  mas- 
culine takes  the  form  of  mind.  It  being  held  that  mind  is  pro- 
ductive or  creative,  and  that  matter  is  receptive,  and  can 
originate  nothing  of  itself,  it  follows  that  the  man  is  superior 
to  the  woman,  because  his  nature  is  supremely  that  of  mind, 
while  hers  is  that  of  matter.  This  means  that  reproduction 
originates  in  the  masculine  principle,  and  that  the  role  of  the 
feminine  is  merely  subordinate,  in  that  she  does  no  more  than 
to  afford  a  matrix  in  which  the  child  may  develop.  In  all  the 
higher  civilizations  this  conclusion,  that  the  origin  of  the  child 
is  with  the  father  and  not  with  the  mother,  finds  a  place,  and 
is  accepted  with  unwavering  faith. 

In  all  the  developed  Greek  philosophies,  whether  it  be 
that  of  Plato  or  that  of  Aristotle,  we  find  the  assertion  of  the 
primary  nature  of  form  and  matter.  If  we  read  closely  enough, 
we  discover  that  this  duality  represents  fundamentally  the  dis- 

[164] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  EELIGION 

tinction  of  sex,  or  that  this  dual  distinction  had  its  origin  in 
the  relations  of  the  masculine  and  the  feminine.  In  the 
Timaeus,  Plato  pertinently  says:  "We  must  conceive  three 
kinds :  first,  that  which  comes  into  being ;  second,  that  in  which 
the  first  comes  to  be ;  third,  that  from  which  the  first  is  copied, 
when  it  is  born  into  existence.  And  we  may  fittingly  compare 
the  recipient  to  the  mother,  the  model  to  the  father,  and  that 
which  springs  into  life  between  them  to  the  offspring/' 
Nothing  can  be  plainer  than  this  statement,  which  corresponds 
to  that  which  may  be  found  in  the  Hindu  Code  of  Manu,  that 
the  child  is  the  offspring  of  the  father,  and  that  the  mother 
merely  serves  as  a  means  of  its  coming  into  being.  In  his  work 
on  The  Generation  of  Animals,  Aristotle  is  even  more  explicit 
in  his  statement  that  the  originative  cause  in  generation  is 
the  male,  and  that  the  female  is  without  any  creative  power 
or  fundamental  concern  in  the  reproductive  process. 

It  may  be  doubted  if  female  descent  was  universally  ac- 
cepted everywhere  in  any  period  of  man's  social  evolution. 
Not  all  primitive  peoples  accept  it  at  the  present  time.  In 
Australia  it  is  to  be  found  in  the  eastern  and  southeastern 
tribes,  but  not  in  those  of  the  central  and  northern  regions  of 
the  continent.  In  those  tribes  where  it  is  found  there  is  a  con- 
siderable degree  of  advancement  in  the  economic  life,  and  in 
social  evolution,  over  those  of  the  regions  where  it  is  not  pres- 
ent. Nowhere  in  Australia  is  mother-right  to  be  found,  female 
descent  not  being  in  itself  enough  to  create  the  larger  social 
force  in  behalf  of  women. 

Practically  the  same  situation  is  to  be  found  in  North 
America,  so  far  as  concerns  the  development  of  both  female 
descent  and  mother-right.  In  the  northern  and  western  tribes, 
which  are  in  all  respects  the  least  advanced  in  industries  and 
in  social  organization,  neither  of  these  social  institutions  is  to 

[165] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

be  found.  Mother-right  appears  only  in  those  regions  where 
the  greatest  progress  has  been  made  in  all  directions.  It  ap- 
pears, therefore,  that  female  descent  and  mother-right  are  not 
characteristic  of  the  lowest  phases  of  social  development,  but 
of  those  where  agriculture  has  been  to  some  degree  developed 
by  women,  and  where  the  deeper  meanings  of  sex,  as  a  process 
of  creation  and  the  continuity  of  the  generations,  has  come  to 
some  measure  of  recognition. 


IV 

The  change  from  mother-right  to  father-right  or  to  patri- 
archalism,  to  use  the  word  commonly  employed,  did  not  come 
about  suddenly  or  from  any  one  cause.  It  may  be  said  to  have 
had  its  origin  in  industrial  or  economic  causes,  which  was 
largely  the  case;  but  other  influences  were  at  work  to  give 
sanction  and  force  to  this  operative  influence.  Religion  also 
afforded  a  potent  motive  working  in  the  same  direction,  and 
giving  a  deeper  and  more  effective  sanction  than  any  imme- 
diately afforded  by  economic  influences.  Behind  slavery,  war, 
and  the  control  of  property  by  men,  was  the  potent  power  of 
divine  requirements  enforcing  the  demands  of  industrial 
activities. 

We  need  not  dwell  upon  the  greater  opportunities  men 
have  for  leading  a  stirring  and  dominating  life,  since  they  are 
not  restricted  in  any  degree  by  childbirth  and  child-care,  and 
are  always  free  to  pursue  interests  outside  of  the  more  limited 
duties  of  the  home  and  its  immediate  concerns.  In  this  sense 
the  anabolic  or  constructive  capacities  of  men  are  greater  than 
those  of  women;  but  perhaps  in  this  social  sense  only.  This 
may  mean  that  men  may  have  more  of  those  qualities  which 
are  of  an  individualistic  nature,  are  more  rebellious  against 

[166] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

mechanical  limitations,  more  inclined  to  a  stirring  and  as- 
sertive life,  and  less  willing  than  women  to  assent  to  the  de- 
mands of  the  immediate  environment,  that  of  the  family  circle 
and  its  routine  requirements.  It  may  be  said,  therefore,  that 
man  is  more  interprising  and  explorative  than  woman,  partly 
because  he  craves  excitement,  and  partly  because  he  is  not 
limited  as  she  is  by  physiological  conditions.  On  the  other 
hand,  woman  is  nearer  the  life  of  the  race  and  its  demands 
than  is  man,  physiologically  more  constructive,  and  more  will- 
ing to  abide  by  the  great  energizing  forces  that  make  for  the 
upbuilding  of  society.  In  her  is  to  be  found  what  is  genetic 
in  a  much  larger  degree  than  in  man,  what  more  truly  makes 
for  the  continuity  of  the  generations,  and  for  the  unifying  of 
the  race  in  all  its  more  permanent  interests.  Her  life  is  more 
nearly  that  of  the  child,  and  therefore  more  assuredly  prophetic 
of  the  future. 

In  this  manner  we  may  hint  at  what  it  is  which  gave  men 
in  the  early  civilizations  a  control  of  women  which  now  seems 
brutal  and  wholly  unnecessary.  Through  whatever  causes 
this  domination  came  about,  it  undoubtedly  had  a  very  large 
effect  on  religion.  Not  less  true  is  it  that  religion  had  a  large 
influence  in  bringing  about  this  domination,  and,  when  it  was 
once  established,  of  giving  it  approval  and  sanction.  As  al- 
ready suggested,  the  female  gods  slowly  disappeared,  and  the 
male  gods  came  to  occupy  a  much  larger  place  than  before, 
to  become  the  true  creators,  and  the  enforcers  of  morality  and 
social  requirements. 

In  many  tribes  of  the  more  advanced  type,  and  widely  in 
the  early  civilizations,  women  were  barred  from  the  ceremonies 
of  religion.  Tabu  proved,  in  this  respect,  a  powerful  influence 
in  restricting  their  relations  to  the  rituals  of  religion,  to  its 
initiations,  and  its  festivals.  They  were  not  wholly  refused 

[167] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

admission  to  these;  but  in  one  degree  or  another  they  were 
shut  out  from  them.  In  this  respect,  their  position  was  very 
different  from  that  accorded  them  under  the  conditions  of 
mother-right,  when  they  were  free  to  exercise  every  religious 
function,  and  when  they  were  often  the  leaders  in  all  rituals 
and  other  duties  connected  with  religion. 

No  other  one  change  which  the  evolution  of  civilization 
has  brought  about  shows  more  truly  than  this  of  the  relations 
of  women  to  religion  and  social  conduct,  to  what  an  extent 
religion  is  a  reflection  of  the  social  or  collective  life  of  a  people. 
In  this  age  of  the  developing  freedom  of  women,  it  is  often  re- 
marked that  a  civilization  may  be  judged,  as  to  its  advance- 
ment and  its  merits,  accordingly  as  it  gives  women  rights  as 
well  as  duties,  liberty  as  well  as  morality.  Religion  may  be 
also  tested  by  the  same  standard,  not  always  to  the  credit  of 
those  which  most  boast  of  their  superiority  in  other  respects. 


The  causes  leading  to  the  worship  of  ancestors  are  many 
and  complicated.  Perhaps  no  one  or  two  statements  will  give 
anything  more  than  a  mere  hint  as  to  their  nature.  Slavery, 
war,  and  property,  representing  the  growing  interests  and 
activities  of  men,  may  probably  best  serve  to  suggest  what  it 
was  which  brought  about  the  change  from  reverence  for  the 
genetic  principle  to  worship  of  ancestors,  the  change  from  the 
superior  rights  of  the  mother  to  those  of  the  father,  the  super- 
iority of  the  woman  in  the  family  to  that  of  its  domination  by 
the  man,  and  the  disappearance  of  mother-right  before  the  grow- 
ing social  assertion  of  the  patriarchal  principle. 

Two  theories  in  regard  to  the  origin  of  the  social  phases  of 
religion  are  now  contending  with  each  other  as  interpretative 

[168] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

motives.  One  of  them  asserts  that  religion  first  finds  expression 
in  animism,  the  recognition  of  soul  or  spirit  present  in  all  ob- 
jects of  nature,  —  in  plants,  animals,  remarkable  phenomena, 
and  in  heavenly  bodies;  and  that  these  are  worshipped  either 
as  superior  beings  to  man  or  as  gods.  The  other  asserts  that  all 
recognition  of  spirits  and  gods  comes  through  interest  in,  and 
reverence  for,  the  dead;  and  the  belief  that  they  continue  to 
exist  after  they  have  passed  out  of  this  life.  Not  merely  do 
they  survive,  but  they  become  powerful  influences  controlling 
the  affairs  of  men. 

That  phase  of  religion  known  as  ancestor-worship  was  re- 
garded by  Herbert  Spencer  as  the  earliest  form  to  appear, 
and  that  out  of  which  all  succeeding  religions  have  been  devel- 
oped. In  the  first  volume  of  his  Principles  of  Sociology  he 
interpreted  this  explanation  of  the  origin  of  religion  in  much 
detail.  He  maintained  that  animal-  and  nature-worship  origin- 
ate in  reverence  for  ancestors,  and  that  out  of  this  tendency 
grows  all  the  gods,  from  lowest  to  highest.  He  states  this  be- 
lief by  saying,  that  "  behind  the  supernatural  beings  of  all 
orders,  there  has  in  every  case  been  a  human  personality." 
Summing  up  his  extended  studies  in  support  of  this  conclu- 
sion, he  says,  in  his  chapter  on  the  primitive  theory  of  things : 
11  After  finding  that  the  earliest  conception  of  a  supernatural 
being,  and  one  which  remains  common  to  all  races,  is  that  of  a 
ghost ;  and  after  finding  that  the  ways  of  propitiating  a  ghost 
were  in  every  case  the  originals  of  the  ways  of  propitiating 
deities;  the  question  was  raised  whether  the  ghost  is  not  the 
type  of  supernatural  being  out  of  which  all  other  types  are 
evolved.  The  facts  named  in  justification  of  an  affirmative 
answer  were  of  several  classes.  From  the  lips  of  primitive 
peoples  themselves,  were  quoted  proofs  that  out  of  ghost- 
worship  in  general,  there  grew  up  the  worship  of  remote  an- 

[169] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

cestral  ghosts,  regarded  as  creators  or  deities.  Worship  of 
deities  so  evolved,  we  found  characterized  ancient  societies  in 
both  hemispheres:  co-existing  in  them  with  elaborate  worship 
of  the  recent  dead.  Evidence  was  given  that  by  the  highest 
races  as  by  the  lowest,  ancestor-worship,  similarly  practised, 
similarly  originated  deities;  and  we  saw  that  it  even  now  sur- 
vives among  the  highest  races,  though  overshadowed  by  a  more 
developed  worship.  Concluding,  then,  that  from  worship  of 
the  dead  every  other  kind  of  worship  has  arisen,  we  proceeded 
to  examine  those  worships  which  do  not  externally  resemble 
it,  to  see  whether  they  have  traceable  kinships.  .  .  .  Even 
deification  of  the  greater  objects  and  powers  in  nature  has  the 
same  root.  .  .  .  Further,  the  hypothesis  to  which  the  ghost- 
theory  leads,  initiated  by  anomalous  occurrences,  extends  it- 
self to  all  phenomena;  so  that  the  properties  and  actions  of 
surrounding  things,  as  well  as  the  thoughts  and  feelings  of 
men,  are  ascribed  to  unseen  beings,  who  thus  constitute  a 
combined  mechanism  of  causation/' 

Since  Spencer  published  his  work  on  Sociology  in  its  first 
volume,  in  1876,  a  very  considerable  change  in  opinion  has 
taken  place  with  reference  to  the  origin  of  religion.  Most 
anthropologists,  and  interpreters  of  the  comparative  phases 
of  religious  evolution,  are  of  the  opinion  that  the  ghost  theory 
belongs  to  a  comparatively  advanced  phase  of  the  development 
of  religion.  Instead  of  being  primitive,  it  appears  in  many  of 
the  phases  interpreted  by  Spencer  only  after  a  considerable 
growth  in  civilization,  which  brings  the  man  into  the  ascend- 
ency in  the  family,  and  the  king  in  the  state.  However,  con- 
siderable evidence  remains  in  favor  of  Spencer's  contention; 
and  much  of  this  has  been  brought  forward  by  William  Ridge- 
way,  in  his  book  on  The  Origin  of  Tragedy  with  special  re- 
ference to  the  Greek  Tragedies,  1910;  and  The  Dramas  and 

[170] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  EELIGION 

Dramatic  Dances  of  Non-European  Races  in  special  reference 
to  the  Origin  of  Greek  Tragedy,  1915.  These  works  are  de- 
voted, as  their  titles  indicate,  to  quite  other  than  problems  of 
religious  origin;  but  they  deal,  nevertheless,  to  no  small  ex- 
tent, in  what  is  more  or  less  definitely  religious  in  its  character. 
As  already  more  than  once  remarked,  religion  in  its  early 
phases  treats  of  the  whole  of  life,  and,  therefore,  it  is  not  sur- 
prising that  it  has  intimate  connections  with  the  origin  and 
development  of  tragedy.  When  we  remark  that  most  of  the 
great  Greek  tragedies  are  intimately  related  to  the  phases  of 
the  religious  life  of  that  people,  we  may  feel  sure  that  nothing 
that  is  human  is  alien  to  the  religions  of  all  early  peoples. 
Ridgeway  says,  in  his  first-mentioned  volume,  that  Aeschylus, 
Sophocles  and  Euripides  "  continued  to  the  last  to  give  great 
prominence  to  the  doctrine  of  ancestor-worship  and  the  potent 
influence  exercised  on  human  affairs  by  the  spirits  of  the 
dead."  In  the  introduction  to  his  second  volume  he  says  that 
the  Hindus,  Greeks,  and  Latins  found  their  own  gods  in  human 
beings  deified  after  death.  Wallis  Budge,  in  his  work  on  Osiris 
and  the  Egyptian  Resurrection,  says  that  the  idea  of  the 
god-man,  Osiris,  was  developed  naturally  from  the  cult  of  the 
ancestor,  who,  having  been  a  man,  was  supposed  to  be  better 
able  to  understand  the  wants  of  living  men  than  the  great  un- 
knowable God,  whose  existence  was  but  dimly  imagined.  He 
also  says  of  Osiris  that  he  was  a  typical  god-man,  who  died 
and  rose  again,  is  represented  in  the  form  of  a  mummy,  or  at 
all  events  in  the  form  of  a  dead  body,  which  has  been  made 
ready  for  burial.  This  form  is  a  development  of  an  ancient 
presentment  of  a  dead  chief  or  ancestor,  for  Osiris  took  the 
place  of  the  tutelary  ancestor-god  who  was  honored  and  wor- 
shipped in  every  village  of  the  Sudan  of  any  size  from  time 
immemorial. 

[171] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

Here  we  have  the  two  theories  as  to  the  origin  and  early 
development  of  religion.  One  finds  the  spirits  and  the  gods  in 
animals,  plants  and  objects  of  nature  animistieally  conceived, 
and  the  other  finds  them  in  the  dead  who  are  supposed  to  live 
on  in  another  life,  and  to  have  a  controlling  influence  on  human 
affairs.  A  great  amount  of  evidence  has  been  brought  forward 
in  support  of  both  theories,  neither  has  as  yet  been  able  to 
overcome  its  rival,  and  to  take  exclusive  possession  of  the  field 
devoted  to  origins.  Perhaps  for  the  present  the  one  theory  may 
supplement  the  other,  that  of  ancestor-worship  being  regarded 
as  of  later  origin  and  development  than  that  based  on  animism. 
Whichever  theory  we  regard  as  the  most  helpful  in  securing 
a  comprehension  of  religious  origins,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  ancestor-worship  had  a  great  influence  on  the  later  pro- 
gress of  religion  in  all  the  early  civilizations.  The  two  coun- 
tries in  which  it  appeared  in  its  complete  expression  were  Rome 
and  China. 

In  Rome  ancestor-worship  and  patria  potestas  expressed 
the  patriarchal  conception  of  society  in  a  most  logical  and  per- 
fected form.  In  the  family  the  father  had  the  right  of  manus, 
that  of  directing  and  controlling  every  other  member  of  it. 
He  held  wife,  children,  and  slaves  in  his  hand,  had  the  right 
to  direct  their  conduct  in  every  particular.  He  might  even 
take  the  life  of  children  and  slaves,  after  consultation  with  the 
other  members  of  his  family,  it  is  true;  but  without  right  on 
their  part  to  protest.  Though  the  wife  joined  with  the  man  in 
family  worship,  which  could  not  be  carried  on  without  her  aid, 
yet  she  was  also  subject  to  the  will  of  her  husband,  who  might 
banish  her  from  his  side  whenever  he  chose  to  do  so.  In  nearly 
every  particular  this  was  true  of  the  relations  of  husband  and 
wife  in  China  and  India. 

[172] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

The  worship  of  ancestors  in  these  lands,  as  in  many 
that  were  less  advanced  in  civilization,  led  to  one  important 
social  demand,  that  the  father  should  be  succeeded  by  a 
legitimate  son,  who  would  follow  the  father  as  the  head  of 
the  family  religion.  Only  a  son  born  of  a  pure  wife,  and  in 
direct  paternal  descent  from  the  first  father  of  the  family, 
could  become  the  guide  in  the  ancestral  worship.  In  case  there 
was  no  such  son,  one  might  be  adopted  from  some  other  family ; 
but  he  must,  by  means  of  religious  ceremonies,  become  as  if  he 
were  born  into  the  family  of  which  he  became  a  member.  This 
demand  for  a  legitimate  son  about  whose  birth  there  could  not 
be  the  slightest  doubt,  required  of  woman  the  most  absolute 
chastity;  and  even  a  suspicion  to  the  contrary  was  enough  to 
cause  her  divorcement.  The  chastity  of  the  father  was  not 
essential,  only  that  of  the  mother. 

Fustel  de  Coulanges,  in  La  Cite  Antique,  translated  as 
The  Ancient  City;  William  Edward  Hearn,  in  The  Aryan 
Household,  as  well  as  Erwin  Rohde,  in  his  work  entitled 
Psyche,  and  devoted  to  the  cult  of  the  soul,  have  given  us  ex- 
tended studies  of  ancestor-worship,  as  developed  in  India, 
Greece  and  Rome.  Coulanges  deals  more  especially  with  the 
religious  aspects  of  the  subject,  and  this  is  also  true  of  Rohde. 
Hearn  gives  more  attention  to  the  developments  connected 
with  jurisprudence,  though  he  shows  how  intimately  the 
growth  of  custom  and  law  were  bound  up  with  the  evolution  of 
religion.  The  Aryan  household,  but  more  especially  so  in 
Rome,  was  intimately  related  to  the  interests  of  religion,  and 
its  sanctions  were  those  of  the  sacra  which  held  it  together 
with  indissoluble  bonds,  at  least  when  it  perfectly  fulfilled  its 
functions.  There  could  not  be  a  family  without  worship  of 
the  ancestral  spirits  of  its  head,  and,  in  turn,  that  head,  the 
father  of  the  household,  after  his  death  became  one  of  the  spir- 

[173] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

its  his  son  would  in  due  time  worship.  In  this  manner  the 
family  here,  and  the  family  beyond,  were  intimately  bound  to- 
gether, the  living  and  the  dead  constituting  one  household,  one 
family  succession.  In  heaven  and  on  earth  there  was  but  one 
family,  the  dead  being  to  the  living  as  if  they  were  alive,  and 
to  the  household  spirits  the  watchful  care  and  protection  of 
the  living  was  of  the  utmost  concern.  In  this  belief  that  the 
family,  both  present  and  absent  as  concerns  the  interests  of 
the  living  moment,  was  an  organism,  one  household  with  no 
real  breaks  in  it,  no  vacant  places  at  the  sacred  hearth,  was 
basic  to  the  religion  of  all  peoples  who  had  reached  the  stage 
of  a  developed  ancestor-worship.  In  his  first  chapter  Coulanges 
says  that  the  members  of  the  ancient  patriarchal  family  were 
united  by  something  more  powerful  than  birth,  affection,  or 
physical  strength,  and  that  this  was  the  religion  of  the  sacred 
fire  as  symbolizing  the  dead  ancestors  and  the  relation  to  them 
of  the  living. 

In  the  presence  of  the  fire  on  the  hearth  the  family  wor- 
shipped the  ancestors  upon  whom  its  members  were  dependent 
for  health  and  prosperity.  The  worship  of  ancestors,  according 
to  Hearn,  in  his  third  chapter,  had  for  its  practical  object  the 
proper  performance  of  the  sacra  —  that  is,  of  the  worship 
peculiar  to  the  household.  The  machinery  by  which  the  sacra 
were  maintained  was  the  corporate  character  of  the  household, 
and  the  perpetual  succession  of  the  house-father.  His  further 
interpretation  of  this  worship  is  of  much  importance  to  the 
history  of  religious  development :  "It  was  a  worship  of  males 
by  males,  of  past  fathers  by  present  fathers.  After  his  death, 
not  less  than  during  his  life,  the  Pater  represented  in  the  spirit- 
world  all  those  who  on  earth  had  been  under  his  hand,  and  re- 
quired that  the  offerings  due  to  him  should  be  made  by  his  suc- 
cessor and  representative  alone.  Thus  the  house-father  for  the 

[174] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

time  being  was  the  visible  representative  and  head  of  the 
household ;  and  was  bound  not  only  to  administer  its  temporal 
affairs;  but  to  perform  the  ceremonies  of  its  religion,  and  to 
maintain  the  purity  of  its  ritual/' 

VI 

Two  other  phases  of  ancestor-worship  ought  to  receive  re- 
cognition. The  first  of  these  is  that  of  the  development  of 
guardian-spirits,  which  appears  everywhere  in  connection  with 
the  worship  of  the  dead.  We  have  already  seen  in  the  third 
chapter,  that  animals,  whether  totems  or  not,  were  frequently 
regarded  as  having  a  guardianship  over  those  who  revered 
them,  and  sought  their  powerful  protection.  This  respect  for 
the  animal-guardians  was  evidently  transferred  to  the  ances- 
tral spirits,  when  ancestor-worship  came  into  vogue.  The  idea 
and  the  need  were  the  same,  however,  whether  the  protector 
was  an  animal  or  a  spirit.  Not  only  did  each  household  have 
its  guardian  spirit,  its  lares  or  its  penates,  but  each  individual 
had  his  Genius  or  her  Juno.  To  the  protecting  care  of  these 
spirits  individuals  owed  their  welfare  and  their  prosperity. 
Socrates  had  such  a  daemon,  who  admonished  or  checked  him 
when  he  attempted  to  do  or  say  anything  which  would  not  be 
for  his  advantage.  The  genius  of  other  men,  however,  not 
merely  gave  negative  advice,  but  also  that  which  was  construc- 
tive and  affirmative. 

The  worship  of  ancestors  led  on,  in  time,  to  the  deification 
of  living  men,  but  rarely  living  women.  If  a  father  might  be 
worshipped  when  he  was  dead,  it  might  also  be  desirable  that 
he  should  be  reverenced,  and  even  worshipped,  while  he  was 
living.  Men  of  striking  character,  of  indomitable  will,  who 
held  priestly  or  kingly  positions,  might  during  their  lifetime 

[175] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

have  accorded  to  them  some  of  the  functions  of  a  god,  and  re- 
ceive some  measure  of  worship.  This  tendency  finally  led  to 
the  assumption  that  kings  and  rulers  were  born  of  divine 
parentage,  and  that  even  while  living  they  were  gods  in  the 
flesh.  In  many  lands,  as  in  Rome,  this  tendency  led  to  the 
deification  and  worship  of  kings  and  emperors.  The  Emperor 
of  China  was  in  our  time  regarded  as  of  direct  descent  from 
the  Heaven-god,  and,  even  now,  the  Emperor  of  Japan  is  of 
the  ancestry  of  the  Sun-goddess,  Amaterasu.  Descent  from  a 
deity,  however,  does  not  necessarily  imply  worship  of  the  one 
with  such  an  ancestry,  though  in  many  instances  this  result 
followed. 

It  has  been  pointed  out  by  J.  G.  Frazer,  in  his  Lectures  on 
the  Early  History  of  Kings,  second  lecture,  and  in  the  first 
part  of  the  third  edition  of  The  Golden  Bough,  entitled  The 
Magic  Art  and  The  Evolution  of  Kings,  that  kingship  had  its 
beginnings  in  magic  and  the  conception  of  the  relations  of  the 
magician  to  the  world  of  the  spirits.  A  higher  development 
of  the  same  tendency  was  that  of  the  recognition  of  the  priest 
as  having  direct  means  of  communication  with  the  super- 
natural world  and  its  divinities.  Because  of  this  capacity  on 
the  part  of  the  priest,  he  was  often  regarded  as  of  divine  birth, 
as  actually  the  son  of  a  god.  Having  this  godlike  nature,  he 
was  accepted  as  a  fit  person,  not  merely  to  conduct  the  rituals 
of  religion,  but  to  preside  over  the  social  and  political  destinies 
of  the  people.  Because  of  his  gifts  as  a  magician  or  a  priest 
the  king  was  regarded  as  a  rain-maker,  as  having  control  over 
the  vegetation  cultivated  by  the  tribe,  and  as  the  master  of  the 
forces  of  nature.  In  his  fifth  lecture  Frazer  says  that  "most 
of  the  higher  savages  at  least  possess  a  rudimentary  notion  of 
certain  supernatural  beings  who  may  fittingly  be  called  gods, 
though  not  in  the  full  sense  in  which  we  use  the  word.  That 

[176] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  EELIGION 

rudimentary  notion  represents  in  all  probability  the  germ  out 
of  which  the  civilized  peoples  have  gradually  evolved  their 
own  high  conceptions  of  divinity;  and  if  we  could  trace  the 
whole  course  of  religious  development  we  might  find  that  the 
chain  which  links  our  idea  of  the  Godhead  with  that  of  the 
savage  was  one  and  unbroken/' 

Intimately  linked  with  the  growth  of  the  idea  of  the  god 
was  that  of  the  king  and  his  powers  as  the  representative  of 
the  god  or  as  the  god  himself  in  human  manifestation.  Frazer 
has  shown  that  the  magician  or  medicine-man  was  the  earliest 
differentiation  of  a  professional  member  of  the  tribe,  that  this 
class  itself  produced  a  variety  of  special  activities,  and  adds: 
"the  most  powerful  member  of  the  order  wins  for  himself  a 
position  as  chief  and  gradually  develops  into  a  sacred  king, 
his  old  magical  functions  falling  more  and  more  into  the  back- 
ground and  being  exchanged  for  priestly  or  even  divine  duties, 
in  proportion  as  magic  is  slowly  ousted  by  religion.  Still  later, 
a  partition  is  effected  between  the  civil  and  the  religious 
aspect  of  the  kingship,  the  temporal  power  being  committed  to 
one  man  and  the  spiritual  to  another. " 

Interpreting  the  process  by  which  the  magician  develops 
into  a  priest,  Frazer  says  that  "the  king,  starting  as  a  magi- 
cian, tends  gradually  to  exchange  the  practice  of  magic  for 
the  priestly  functions  of  prayer  and  sacrifice.  And  while  the 
distinction  between  the  human  and  the  divine  is  still  imper- 
fectly drawn,  it  is  often  imagined  that  men  may  themselves 
attain  to  godhead,  not  merely  after  their  death,  but  in  their 
lifetime,  through  the  temporary  or  permanent  possession  of 
their  whole  nature  by  a  great  and  powerful  spirit.  No  class 
of  the  community  has  benefited  so  much  as  kings  by  this  be- 
lief in  the  possible  incarnation  of  the  god  in  human  form." 

[177] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  EELIGION 

Ancestor-worship  exists  today  in  China  in  a  form  more 
elaborate  and  complete  than  in  any  other  country,  and  in  a 
form  surpassing  in  many  of  its  details  that  of  ancient  Rome. 
In  the  seven  volumes  of  de  Groot's  The  Religious  System  of 
China,  published  in  Leyden,  is  given  a  detailed  account  of 
every  phase  of  this  religion,  as  it  is  there  now  in  active  opera- 
tion. On  one  side  it  is  a  pure  naturism,  a  worship  of  all  the 
powers  of  the  physical  universe.  It  is  called  by  de  Groot  Uni- 
versism,  and  such  it  is  in  fact;  but  this  phase  of  it  belongs 
to  the  state,  which  alone  is  entitled  to  conduct  the  rituals  by 
means  of  which  it  finds  interpretation. 

The  religion  of  the  Chinese  family,  however,  is  an  ancestor- 
worship,  and  is  kept  up  with  great  assiduity  even  at  the  pres- 
ent time.  This  was  the  religion  of  Confucius,  and,  though  he 
did  not  originate  it  or  in  any  essential  sense  add  to  it,  his  ap- 
proval and  sanction  were  given  it.  This  may  have  served  in 
some  measure  to  keep  it  very  much  alive  to  our  own  day.  This 
worship  is  justified,  to  the  Chinese  mind,  because  the  funda- 
mental powers  of  Yang  and  Yin  find  manifestation,  not  only 
in  every  part  of  the  universe,  but  also  in  every  human  being. 
The  soul  in  man  is  a  part  of  the  divine  universe  itself,  and 
manifests  all  its  qualities.  Therefore,  the  universe-worship 
and  the  ancestor-worship  are  essentially  of  the  same  nature, 
except  that  the  one  belongs  to  the  state  and  the  other  to  the 
individual  man,  or,  rather,  to  his  family. 

When  the  Chinaman  worships  his  ancestors  he  is  also,  in 
fact,  worshipping  the  universe  as  it  expresses  itself  in  them. 
The  microcosm  is  here  directly  and  intimately  related  to  the 
macrocosm;  and  the  adoration  of  the  father  is  in  fact  a  wor- 
ship of  the  primary  principle  of  creative  power  manifested  in 
the  universe  in  the  form  of  Yang,  the  all-comprehensive  mascu- 
linity. Ancestor-worship  in  China  is  not  merely  a  reverence  or 

[178] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF   RELIGION 

worship  paid  to  the  dead,  but  to  the  universal  principle  of  life 
and  power  found  in  the  universe,  and  consequently  in  man  him- 
self. The  truth  is,  says  de  Groot,  that  the  dead  of  a  family 
are  its  patron  divinities,  worshipped  and  sacrificed  to  like  all 
other  gods,  with  quite  similar  incense,  spirits,  food,  and  dain- 
ties, quite  similar  genuflections  and  khotaos,  all  with  the  plain 
object  of  obtaining  their  blessing. 

Chinese  ancestor-worship  is  a  form  of  animism;  and  it  is 
connected  with  the  belief  that  all  forms  of  life  are  possessed  of 
spiritual  power,  and  have  in  them  some  kind  of  spiritual  es- 
sence. The  whole  world  is  filled  with  spirits,  and  the  China- 
man might  be  said  to  be  the  most  convinced  spiritist  to  be 
found  in  any  land  or  time.  Daemons  are  present  everywhere, 
some  of  them  good,  more  of  them  bad.  A  large  measure  of  the 
ancestral  religion  of  China  consists  in  seeking  to  escape  from 
evil  spirits,  and  the  ills  they  bring  upon  man.  Demoniacal 
possession  is  a  reality  in  China,  and  the  exorcism  of  such 
powers  of  disease  and  harm  demands  much  attention  and  much 
effort.  Not  only  does  the  Chinaman  believe  in  spiritual  powers, 
but  he  believes  in  far  too  many  of  them.  They  work  him  harm 
on  every  hand,  both  day  and  night,  and  throughout  every 
phase  of  his  existence. 

There  is  a  good  side  to  ancestor-worship  in  China,  as  well 
as  one  that  is  unpropitious.  The  bad  spirits  may  be  always 
present,  but  so  are  the  good  ones;  and  it  is  through  the  good 
that  the  evil  are  driven  out,  and  made  ineffective  in  their  ef- 
forts to  cause  harm.  Were  there  nothing  but  evil  in  this  wor- 
ship it  would  soon  disappear;  but  the  benefits  are  many,  ac- 
cording to  the  ancestor-worshipper.  He  therefore  continues 
to  adore  the  dead  of  his  family,  and  to  trust  in  their  readiness 
and  their  capacity  to  give  him  the  aid  he  needs.  He  may  be 
sometimes  deceived,  and  sometimes  the  ancestors  may  fail  to 

[179] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

afford  him  succor ;  but  for  the  most  part  they  are  as  powerful 
as  they  are  beneficent,  according  to  his  way  of  thinking. 

The  Chinaman  has  had  the  opportunity  to  accept  the 
teachings  of  Lao-tsze,  which  has  confirmed  him  in  his  reverence 
for  the  dead.  He  has  also  been  offered  Buddhism,  which  he 
has  to  a  large  extent  added  to  his  more  primitive  form  of  re- 
ligion ;  but  he  has  not,  therefore,  found  it  necessary  to  discard 
the  old  worship.  Islam  has  come  to  him,  but  he  has  not  been 
greatly  attracted  to  its  strict  and  dogmatic  theism.  Christian- 
ity has  knocked  at  his  door,  but,  as  yet,  he  has  only  heard  the 
knocking,  but  without  willingness  to  admit  it  into  his  house 
of  life.  Something  in  the  reverence  for  ancestors,  the  linking 
together  of  the  generations  in  a  great  bond  of  reverence  and 
worship,  still  wins  his  admiration  and  his  faith. 

VII 

It  has  been  already  mentioned  that  feudalism  appears 
when  tribal  society  is  in  the  process  of  growth  into  the  organ- 
ized and  developed  state.  The  incipient  stages  of  this  process 
may  be  studied  among  the  Maori  of  New  Zealand.  It  found 
expression  in  Japan  down  to  the  revolution  of  a  half-century 
ago.  In  India  it  found  its  manifestation  at  the  period  when 
the  Aryans  were  conquering  the  indigenous  races  of  that 
peninsula,  and  settling  down  as  the  dominating  race  in  the 
northern  portions  of  it.  What  it  was  in  that  region  may  be 
best  studied  in  the  Mahabharata,  and  in  the  episode  of  it 
known  as  the  Bhagavat-gita.  In  Greece  it  found  its  interpreta- 
tion in  the  epics  attributed  to  Homer.  The  first  stages  of  it 
in  western  Europe  claim  attention  in  the  Nibelungen-lied ;  and 
those  which  were  later  may  be  found  defined  in  the  codes  of 
the  early  peoples  of  that  region,  in  the  great  body  of  lyrical 

[180] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF   RELIGION 

poetry  then  produced,  and  in  the  various  phases  of  chivalry, 
perhaps  also  in  the  crusades. 

Feudalism  in  western  Europe  reached  its  highest  mani- 
festation in  many  respects;  and  nowhere  else  did  it  develop 
all  the  phases  which  it  there  presented.  In  that  region  it  ap- 
peared largely  as  a  lordly  control  of  the  great  mass  of  the 
people,  by  men  living  in  castles,  holding  all  the  land  about 
them,  and  by  military  organization  dominating  common  life, 
politics,  commerce,  and  religion  alike.  The  social  basis  for 
this  type  of  development  may  be  regarded  as  having  its  founda- 
tion in  ancestor-worship,  which  gave  sanction  to  the  idea  that 
some  men  are  born  to  rule  over  others  by  right  divine.  The 
feudalism  of  western  Europe  had  outgrown  the  more  material 
phases  of  that  worship ;  but  its  spiritual  implications  remained, 
and  they  were  effective  in  creating  a  class  ruling  as  if  ap- 
pointed of  God. 

The  divine  right  of  kings  had  its  beginnings  in  the  belief 
that  rulers  are  the  direct  descendants  of  the  gods  or  that  the 
gods  have  endowed  them  with  superhuman  qualities,  in  order 
that  they  may  fitly  govern  others.  Other  causes  operated  to 
give  working  power  to  this  belief.  One  of  these  was  the  organ- 
ization of  society  for  purposes  of  war,  and  the  demand  that  all 
men  hold  themselves  in  readiness  to  heed  the  war-call  of  the 
king  or  the  lord.  Society  was  so  organized  in  ranks  or  grades 
as  to  bring  about  this  result  with  least  delay  and  in  the  most 
effective  manner.  Another  influence  leading  in  the  same  direc- 
tion was  the  theoretical  ownership  of  all  the  land  by  the  king, 
who  parcelled  it  out  to  his  followers  in  proportion  to  their 
ability  to  furnish  warriors  for  his  conquest  of  other  states. 

Under  feudalism  religion  becomes  feudalistic,  with  belief 
that  all  rulers  of  church  and  state  alike  are  sent  of  God,  and 
are  free  to  direct  the  affairs  of  others  according  to  their  will. 

[181] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF   RELIGION 

In  Japan  Shinto  recognized  this  grading  of  the  different  orders 
of  society  according  to  their  spiritual  rank.  This  appears 
most  definitely  in  India,  where  caste  was  not  merely  a  social 
institution,  but  also  a  most  important  phase  of  religion.  Status 
rules  under  such  conditions,  one  is  born  into  a  certain  grade  in 
society,  and  has  no  power  to  remove  himself  from  it,  whether 
it  be  a  low  grade  or  a  high  one.  To  a  large  extent  this  was 
true  in  western  Europe,  where  feudalism  .ranked  society  into 
lords,  freemen,  and  serfs  as  concerns  labor  and  political  duties ; 
and  into  saved,  probationed,  and  damned  by  birth  as  concerns 
religion. 

As  we  pass  up  through  the  several  stages  in  the  processes 
of  social  and  political  evolution,  from  the  primitive  band  or 
group  to  the  developed  state,  we  may  discover  a  movement 
towards  the  modification  of  religion,  in  harmony  with  these  in- 
dustrial and  social  changes.  This  process  of  change  is  not 
everywhere  harmonious,  and  the  intimacy  of  religion  and  so- 
cial processes  is  not  uniform  in  all  regions.  Modifying  causes 
are  many,  and  they  prevent  an  even  march  of  progress  through 
all  stages  of  this  evolution.  It  appears,  however,  that  as  the 
group  enlarges  the  progress  is  more  rapid,  for  that  means  a 
wider  connection  of  tribe  with  tribe  and  city  with  city;  and 
that  there  is  a  larger  process  developed  of  intercommunication, 
and  of  the  amalgamation  of  ritual  with  ritual  and  belief  with 
belief.  The  primitive  band  has  little  intimate  contact  with 
other  groups;  but  when  the  stage  of  the  city-state  has  been 
reached,  as  in  Greece  or  northern  Italy,  many  modifying  de- 
velopments of  society  and  religion  appear.  Commerce  is  much 
extended,  men  travel  to  other  lands,  rituals  are  freely  bor- 
rowed, and  a  synthetic  process  takes  place,  which  widens  all 
phases  of  life,  both  as  concern  social  and  spiritual  interests. 

Early  men  live  largely  in  their  emotions,  and  in  gratifying 

[182] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

the  primary  needs  of  existence.  But  as  society  develops,  and 
there  comes  a  wider  touch  with  other  peoples  and  forms  of 
social  and  industrial  expression,  men  become  thinkers,  and 
speculate  about  causes,  the  origins  of  things,  and  the  funda- 
mental nature  of  what  they  see  and  are.  Philosophy  slowly  ad- 
vances to  an  interpretation  of  nature  and  life,  crudely  at  first, 
but  with  more  and  more  of  boldness,  and  with  a  firmer  grasp 
on  realities.  Since  the  social  processes  are  those  with  which 
men  are  most  familiar,  they  naturally  at  first  read  these  into 
the  world  around  them,  and  find  them  a  measuring  rod  with 
which  to  determine  all  other  phases  of  the  world  they  know. 
Very  slowly  speculation  newly  interprets  religion,  broadens  its 
sanctions,  and  more  clearly  defines  its  gods. 

In  the  advance  of  society  from  the  tribal  to  the  feudal 
form  of  organization,  there  was  a  corresponding  growth  in 
religion  from  animism  to  anthropomorphism.  Animism  grew 
out  of  the  industrial  conditions  existing  in  the  clan  and  the 
tribe,  and  it  reflected  the  mental  attitude  of  the  gatherer,  the 
hunter  and  the  early  agriculturist.  Not  the  less,  it  was  bound 
up  with  the  early  stages  of  the  evolution  of  the  arts  of  life, 
those  arts  of  a  practical  nature  which  concerned  the  immediate 
needs  of  a  primitive  communal  form  of  society.  In  such  a 
community  everything  in  man's  environment  was  of  a  like 
nature  with  himself,  and  animism  reflected  this  reading  of  man 
himself  into  the  whole  of  the  world  around  him.  When  death 
came  to  have  some  degree  of  thought  expressed  in  its  inter- 
pretation, and  it  was  sought  to  relate  it  to  the  interests  of  the 
living  community,  then  animism  developed  as  a  world  of 
ghosts  and  spirits  impinging  upon  man's  interests  and  deter- 
mining his  welfare  here  and  hereafter. 

The  social  advance  to  feudalism  or  to  the  highest  stages  of 
tribal  organization  and  rule,  which  slowly  led  on  to  the  forma- 

[183] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

tion  of  the  state,  had  the  effect  of  gradually  supplementing 
animism  by  anthropomorphism.  The  animal  gods  became 
human  gods.  The  vague  mana  and  orenda  gave  way  to  a  defin- 
ite conception  of  human-like  powers  as  working  in  every  phase 
of  the  environing  world.  With  the  appearance  of  ancestor- 
worship,  and  the  development  of  the  chief  and  the  king,  the 
spirits  took  on  a  human  form.  They  ceased  to  find  their  chief 
expression  in  an  undefined  animatism  or  in  the  form  of  animal- 
beings  of  supernatural  powers,  and  became  fathers,  that  is, 
genuine  human  powers  residing  in  a  world  beyond  that  of  the 
living.  In  this  manner  animism  gave  way  to  anthropo- 
morphism, the  spirits  and  the  gods  becoming  more  and  more 
human  in  all  their  characteristics. 

This  process  went  on  slowly,  and  required  thousands  of 
years  for  its  full  development.  It  did  not  go  before,  but  fol- 
lowed, the  process  by  which  the  tribe  was  changed  into  the 
feudal  form  of  society,  first,  perhaps  into  the  city-state,  and 
then  into  the  developed  nation.  This  was  a  greatly  important 
advance  for  religion,  which  gave  to  the  gods  a  definite  form 
and  a  truly  human  manifestation.  In  the  early  phase  of  evolu- 
tion the  god  might  abide  in  a  tree,  an  animal,  a  thunder-stroke 
or  a  star ;  but  now  he  became  as  a  man,  with  all  the  properties 
and  abilities  of  a  man.  In  becoming  man-like  he  came  nearer 
to  men,  and  his  power  was  vastly  increased. 

We  may  rightly  assume  that  anthropomorphism  or  the 
man-like  conception  of  the  gods  has  never  wholly  superseded 
animism  or  even  that  religious  phase  known  as  animatism. 
Undoubtedly  these  early  phases  of  religion,  and  of  cosmogonic 
interpretation,  were  more  nearly  universal  than  any  that  have 
succeeded  them.  The  law  of  social  heredity  or  the  working 
principle  of  tradition  has  kept  them  very  much  alive  down  al- 
most to  our  own  day,  and  has  by  no  means  banished  them  from 

[184] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

the  higher  phases  of  religion  and  philosophy.  They  live  on  in 
all  but  the  more  developed  phases  of  religion,  those  which 
have  come  most  under  the  influence  of  the  methods  and  the 
spirit  of  science.  No  higher  religion  has  escaped  the  powerful 
influence  of  animism,  and  under  Christianity  the  belief  in 
spirits  as  yet  holds  a  dominating  sway  in  controlling  the  pop- 
ular conception  of  the  world  and  life.  Even  about  the  concep- 
tion of  God  lingers  much  of  what  is  animistic.  It  has  been  said 
that  we  never  know  how  anthropomorphic  we  are,  and  we  may 
assert  with  equal  truth  that  we  never  realize  how  animistic  we 
are,  even  at  the  present  day,  and  in  the  highest  phases  of 
religion. 

Nevertheless,  it  was  a  great  advance  when  the  tribe  grew 
into  the  state,  and  when  the  vaguely  defined  ghost  grew  into 
a  definite  conception  of  a  human-like  spirit.  The  limitation  of 
this  advance  was  that  the  god  was  conceived  of  as  in  the  form  of 
a  chief  or  king,  that  is,  an  autocratic  and  dominating  spiritual 
ruler.  Society  ceased  to  be  democratic,  as  it  was  in  the  early 
tribe,  and  it  became  aristocratic,  with  the  father,  the  chief, 
the  king  or  the  emperor  as  a  theocratic  ruler  over  the  society 
with  which  he  was  mainly  concerned.  This  was  undoubtedly 
an  advance  in  the  conception  of  the  nature  of  the  ruler,  but  it 
was  also  an  increase  in  a  dominating  and  often  vexatious 
authority.  It  was  no  longer  the  group  with  which  the  indi- 
vidual was  concerned,  with  its  spirit  of  democratic  authority, 
its  equality  of  all  the  members  on  a  basis  of  common  needs  and 
mutual  interests;  but  subjection  to  an  autocratic  ruler,  with 
power  of  life  and  death. 

Every  phase  of  this  progress  from  animism  to  anthropo- 
morphism, from  a  religion  of  ghosts  to  a  religion  of  spirits, 
from  shamanism  to  priesthood,  was  a  reflection  of  the  changes 
going  on  the  industrial,  social  and  mental  life  of  the  human 

[185] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

community.  Indeed,  we  must  assume  that  the  basis  of  this 
change  is  to  be  found  in  the  progress  of  the  arts,  in  the  chang- 
ing sources  of  the  food-supply  of  the  community,  and  in  its 
forms  of  social  and  political  organization.  We  might  truly 
say  that  it  is  a  reflection  of  the  progress  made  from  a  social 
to  a  political  form  of  organization;  that  is,  from  a  communal 
or  tribal  form  of  society  to  one  that  is  feudal  or  political. 

It  is  at  this  stage  in  the  evolution  of  religion  that  myth 
finds  its  highest  expression,  its  most  perfect  development. 
Myth  is  of  the  very  nature  of  anthropomorphism,  since  myth 
is  the  conception  of  the  action  of  all  world-processes  as  result 
of  the  doings  of  persons.  Religion  always  remains  in  the 
mythical  stage  of  evolution  while  it  attributes  the  origin  of 
the  universe,  the  advances  of  civilization  and  culture,  the  in- 
vention of  morality  and  the  arts,  to  the  work  of  personalities 
or  a  personality  with  supernatural  powers.  This  is  the  essen- 
tial characteristic  of  myth,  and  of  all  religion  which  is  of  a 
mythical  origin.  Only  when  religion  sublimates  its  concep- 
tion of  God,  rids  him  of  his  personal  attributes,  sees  in  him 
no  longer  the  weaknesses  and  the  caprices  of  the  personal,  is 
it  enabled  to  escape  from  the  domain  of  the  mythical.  While 
it  is  mythical  it  is  impossible  for  it  to  cast  off  the  animistic, 
and  to  escape  from  the  thralldom  of  primitive  traditions. 

VIII 

The  evolution  of  feudal  society  had  a  very  effective  in- 
fluence on  morals  and  all  ethical  conceptions.  It  was  the 
period  when  the  moral  codes  came  into  existence,  when  the 
decalogue  first  took  form  (though  in  different  regions,  and 
under  other  religions,  the  number  of  commands  might  be  less 
or  more),  and  when  ethical  precepts  took  on  a  distinct  tone 

[186] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

of  command  for  the  individual.  The  system  of  tabus  did  not 
as  yet  disappear,  but  it  was  gradually  replaced  by  such 
ethical  principles  as  might  be  applied  to  individual  conduct. 
Morality  became  more  and  more  such  as  the  priest  and  the 
king  would  approve,  and  such  as  would  promote  the  enforce- 
ment of  their  authority.  It  became  autocratic.  The  tabu 
element  remains  in  the  negative  form  of  the  decalogue  of  the 
Hebrews,  commanding  what  should  not  be  done,  rather  than 
what  would  be  most  conducive  to  the  welfare  of  the  community 
and  the  individual. 

In  this  period  of  transition  the  blood-feud  underwent  a 
change,  and  crimes  could  be  compounded  for  by  the  payment 
of  money.  The  tribal  demand  that  all  deeds  injurious  to  the 
tribe  should  be  punished  by  the  community,  all  members  of  the 
offending  tribe  being  held  responsible  for  the  acts  of  each  of 
its  members,  in  no  inconsiderable  degree  remained  in  force. 
Such  offences,  however,  though  dealt  with  by  the  community, 
were  subject  to  compensation  by  other  processes  than  those  of 
exacting  a  tooth  for  a  tooth.  Sometimes  the  offender  was 
handed  over  to  the  community  against  which  he  had  offended, 
and  he  was  adopted  into  it  in  place  of  the  man  he  had  slain. 
Again,  a  graded  system  of  compensation  in  goods  or  money 
was  devised,  by  which  offences  were  atoned  for.  Another 
method  of  dealing  with  crime  was  that  of  providing  places 
of  refuge  to  which  the  criminal  might  escape,  and  would  there 
be  free  from  molestation  until  his  friends  might  compound  for 
his  evil  deeds. 

Gradually  customs  grew  into  laws,  and  jurisprudence 
found  its  feeble  beginnings.  This  change  indicated  that  the 
individual  was  having  recognition  as  being  alone  responsible 
for  his  evil  deeds,  that  motives  as  well  as  acts  were  coming  to 
have  appreciation,  and  that  tabu  was  developing  into  definite 

[187] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

moral  principles,  enforced  in  a  systematic  manner  by  the  com- 
munity. Though  it  may  appear  that  these  changes  indicate  a 
growth  in  mildness  and  sympathy  in  dealing  with  offences 
against  the  community  and  the  individual,  yet  the  fact  remains 
that  punishment  was  of  a  harsh  and  often  of  a  cruel  nature. 
If  the  slave  was  sometimes  treated  with  leniency  and  human- 
ness,  he  was  often  regarded  as  no  more  than  a  beast,  and  dealt 
with  accordingly.  The  criminal  was  too  often  regarded  as  a 
wild  animal,  a  viper,  and  used  in  the  most  brutal  manner.  He 
was  stricken  down  without  mercy,  it  might  be,  or  he  was  im- 
mured in  dark  and  foul  dungeons,  fed  only  that  he  might  con- 
tinue to  live  and  suffer,  or  forgotten  until  death  brought  re- 
lease. One  result  of  these  methods  of  punishment  by  autocratic 
authority  was  the  conception  of  the  torturing  punishment  to 
be  meted  out  to  the  offender  against  God  in  the  future  world. 
Undoubtedly  the  ethical  systems  which  grew  up  under 
feudalism  were  in  some  respects  more  advanced,  and  socially 
more  conducive  to  human  progress,  than  those  which  appeared 
under  the  conditions  of  tribal  society;  but  in  other  phases  of 
them  they  were  less  advanced  and  less  humane.  The  growth 
of  autocratic  power  placed  the  offender  and  the  worker,  as 
well  as  woman,  under  conditions  making  life  less  kindly,  more 
difficult  to  carry  through  with  success  for  all  who  are  below 
the  governing  ranks  in  society.  The  development  of  property 
gave  power  to  those  who  possessed  it,  and  made  their  lives 
ampler  and  happier;  but  for  those  who  did  not  accumulate  it, 
and  they  were  the  great  majority,  the  ways  of  the  world  were 
dark,  and  happiness  often  a  meager  shadow. 


[188] 


CHAPTER  V 

National  Religion 

IN  his  volume  on  The  History  of  Religion,  C.  P.  Tiele 
speaks  of  the  great  influence  of  national  character  on  re- 
ligion; and  he  refers  also  to  the  difference  in  the  character  of 
races,  the  nature  of  their  home  and  occupations,  and  the  his- 
toric relations  in  which  the  various  religions  stand  to  their 
neighbors,  as  having  a  considerable  influence  in  modifying  their 
development.  He  also  points  out  how  the  mingling  of  races,  by 
means  of  migration  and  conquest,  and  the  transition  from  the 
wandering  life  of  hunters  and  fishermen  to  the  settled  tasks  of 
agriculture,  and  the  establishment  of  regular  states,  have  deeply 
affected  the  evolution  of  religion  wherever  these  changes  have 
come  about. 

Without  doubt  the  formation  of  states,  and  the  acquisition 
of  a  permanent  national  life,  have  been  among  the  most  wide- 
reaching  causes  influencing  the  modification  of  early  religions, 
the  abandonment  of  animism,  and  the  acquisition  of  theistic 
beliefs.  As  we  have  seen,  there  has  been  a  growth  in  religion 
corresponding  to  the  changes  which  have  brought  about  the 
evolution  of  the  hunting  band  into  a  tribe,  with  organized 
clans;  and  the  beginnings  of  the  arts  and  methods  of  culture. 
A  further  advance  was  made  when  tribes  were  amalgamated  to 
form  confederacies,  city-states  or  the  earlier  stages  of  national 
organization.  The  same  causes  which  transformed  the  band 
into  a  tribe,  and  the  tribe  into  a  feudal  autocracy,  also  in  time 
brought  about  the  enlargement  of  feudal  into  national  society. 
This  process  was  brought  about  by  peaceful  federation  and  by 

[189] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

conquest.  The  Iroquois  afford  an  instance  of  the  union  of  tribes 
into  a  confederacy  by  the  friendly  agitation  and  solicitation  of 
Hiawatha,  though  he  was  vigorously  opposed  in  this  effort. 
In  time  it  was  brought  about  by  this  personal  influence,  and 
because  it  became  apparent  that  a  union  of  tribes  would  secure 
many  advantages.  However,  at  a  later  time  the  Iroquois  made 
use  of  force  in  compelling  other  tribes  to  join  their  confederacy. 
Probably  the  Iroquois,  in  the  course  of  a  few  centuries,  would 
have  developed  a  state  organization  had  not  their  evolution 
been  disturbed  by  the  coming  of  the  whites. 

In  Mexico  one  of  the  most  successful  states  in  America 
was  organized  as  the  result  of  conquest,  though  peaceful  amal- 
gamation was  also  a  potent  influence  in  the  formation  of  the 
Aztec  nation.  The  same  statement  will  apply  to  the  kingdom 
formed  in  Peru  under  the  Inca  influence  and  capacity  for  or- 
ganization. Not  too  much  emphasis,  however,  is  to  be  placed 
on  individual  genius  in  this  respect,  for  there  can  be  no  ques- 
tion that  climatic  and  other  similar  external  causes  were  in 
one  or  another  degree  favorable  to  the  development  of  the 
early  states.  All  the  advanced  civilizations  in  America  originated 
in  the  region  extending  from  Mexico  along  the  Pacific  coast  as 
far  south  as  northern  Chili.  The  political  development  in  this 
narrow  though  much  extended  region  was  not  continuous;  but 
here  were  all  the  most  advanced  growths,  and  the  presence  of 
the  only  genuine  states.  In  Mexico,  Central  America,  New 
Granada,  Colombia,  and  Peru,  tribes  had  been  combined,  poli- 
tical power  had  begun,  and  had  advanced  to  a  considerable  de- 
gree of  perfection.  In  Peru,  especially,  one  of  the  most  highly 
organized  states  along  communal  lines  had  been  secured. 

When  we  consider  the  rudimentary  industrial  development 
attained  to  in  America,  the  rudeness  of  the  tools  and  weapons, 
the  slight  degree  of  advancement  in  the  military  art,  and  the 

[190] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF   RELIGION 

almost  entire  absence  of  commerce,  methods  of  travel  and  trans- 
portation, it  may  be  recognized  that  no  considerable  progress 
could  be  made  except  in  the  localities  most  favorable  for  the 
cultivation  of  the  soil,  on  which  these  peoples  almost  entirely 
depended. 

When  we  turn  to  the  eastern  continent  we  find  that  similar 
conditions  led  to  similar  results.  Almost  without  exception  the 
early  civilizations  grew  up  along  river  valleys  or  in  other  most 
favored  regions  as  concerns  climate,  soil  and  opportunities  for 
commerce.  One  of  the  earliest  of  these  was  that  which  ap- 
peared in  the  river  valleys  of  China,  and  was  to  a  considerable 
degree  shaped  by  the  conditions  there  afforded.  The  Aryan 
civilization  in  India  began  along  the  Indus,  and  then  spread 
eastward  down  the  Ganges.  Every  step  in  its  progress  through 
northern  India  was  by  means  of  armed  conquest;  and  for  cen- 
turies this  people  was  under  arms  in  forcing  back  the  native 
population,  and  in  their  subjection.  Another  great  civilization 
grew  up  in  the  valleys  of  the  Euphrates  and  the  Tigris,  which 
was  not  only  one  of  the  earliest,  but  in  many  respects  one  of 
the  most  important.  The  other  very  early  civilization  was  that 
which  appeared  in  the  valley  of  the  Nile,  which  has  held  a  great 
place  in  the  world's  history.  Other  centers  of  states,  proceed- 
ing from  a  time  very  remote,  was  that  eastward  of  the  Persian 
gulf,  and  those  bordering  on  the  Mediterranean.  The  valley 
of  this  great  inland  sea  acted  on  the  peoples  who  settled  in  it  in 
much  the  same  manner  as  did  the  rivers  to  those  of  the  more  east- 
ward regions. 

No  claim  is  here  made  that  the  early  civilizations  were  the 
results  of  the  conditions  mentioned  but  that  these  favored  cli- 
matic regions,  and  their  advantages  of  location,  merely  afforded 
the  opportunities  which  aided  in  developing  race,  political  or- 
ganization, and  social  genius.  Such  opportunities  led  to  the 

[191] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

migration  of  the  most  capable  races  into  these  regions,  and  to 
their  being  utilized  in  behalf  of  an  advancing  civilization.  Not 
one  of  the  races  settled  in  the  regions  mentioned  appears  to 
have  been  indigenous  to  them,  but  were  attracted  to  them  be- 
cause of  the  facilities  they  offered  for  agriculture,  industries 
and  commerce.  Some  of  them  were  won  by  conquest,  some  by 
peaceful  amalgamation  with  the  original  inhabitants;  others  ap- 
pear to  have  had  successive  invasions,  and  to  have  developed  a 
highly  mixed  population,  which  finally  led  to  an  amalgamation 
into  a  distinctly  new  race. 

Migrations  were  the  result  of  the  changes  in  climate, 
the  failure  in  the  productiveness  of  the  soil,  owing  to  the  on- 
coming of  those  conditions  which  produced  the  deserts  of  the 
eastern  continent,  and  the  ensuing  failure  of  the  food  supply. 
Another  cause,  though  less  frequent,  perhaps,  was  the  result 
of  over-population  and  the  consequent  inadequacy  of  the  soil 
to  produce  food  in  sufficient  quantities.  Under  these  conditions 
a  part  of  the  tribe  or  the  feudal  community  divided  off,  and 
sought  unoccupied  or  more  productive  regions.  The  results  pro- 
duced by  these  processes  were  essentially  the  same. 

War  and  conquest  played  a  considerable  part  in  these  de- 
velopments; but  it  is  doubtful  if  they  were  in  any  degree  more 
important  than  the  results  which  were  produced  by  peaceful 
migration,  the  amalgamation  of  peoples,  the  coalescence  of  cul- 
tures, and  the  fusion  of  religions.  The  chief  value  of  war  in 
the  advancement  of  civilization  was  the  bringing  together  of 
races  and  cultures,  their  assimilation  to  each  other,  and  the 
mixing  of  religious  rituals  and  beliefs.  These  results  were  of 
frequent  occurrence,  it  would  appear ;  and  the  effects  were  often 
permanent  and  beneficial.  At  the  same  time,  it  is  not  to  be 
forgotten,  that  populations  were  ruthlessly  destroyed,  that 
women  were  carried  from  their  homes  in  great  numbers,  that 

[192] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  EELIGION 

they  were  cruelly  made  to  serve  the  purposes  of  their  captors, 
and  with  little  regard  to  their  own  welfare.  If  in  this  way 
peoples  were  mingled  and  newly  created,  culture  assimilated 
to  culture,  and  civilization  broadened  by  mingling  with  civili- 
zation, it  can  only  be  said  that  this  was  the  worst  of  all  possible 
means  which  could  be  followed  for  the  advancement  of  human 
welfare.  Good  came,  but  evil  followed  with  uncompromising 
certainty. 

It  is  designed  here  to  suggest  that  the  causes  which  fur- 
thered the  progress  of  civilization  were  also  those  which  pro- 
moted the  advancement  of  religion.  No  higher  religion  ever 
grew  on  a  barren  soil  or  under  conditions  where  art,  industry, 
morality  and  civilization  could  not  progress.  The  religion  of 
the  tribe  is  that  which  naturally  grows  out  of  that  type  of 
social  organization,  while  feudalism  produces  a  widely  different 
type  of  ritual  and  faith,  largely  because  the  social  and  political 
forms  of  organization  are  of  another  variety.  When  the  state 
is  reached  we  come  upon  still  another  kind  of  religious  move- 
ment, with  rituals  largely  modified,  and  a  fresh  quality  of  moral 
conduct. 

It  must  not  be  assumed,  however,  that  there  is  any  sudden 
break  in  development  or  that  fundamentally  the  religion  of  the 
state  is  of  another  type  than  that  of  the  tribe.  A  continuous 
advance  goes  on,  though  not  without  rapid  movements  of  change 
during  shorter  or  longer  periods,  and  not  without  times  when 
an  actual  degeneracy  appears;  but  the  general  trend  is  along 
the  same  lines  which  lead  to  social  and  political  modifications. 
"Without  doubt  a  lower  religion  may  be  modified  by  a  higher  one, 
even  without  large  regard  to  those  movements  which  change  the 
nature  of  the  state;  but  this  is  assuredly  not  the  case  in  the 
early  periods.  What  this  all  means  is  that  mankind  advances, 
not  in  sections,  but  in  the  whole  of  its  characteristics;  and  as 

[193] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

a  totality.  When  a  tribe  or  a  state  is  modified  in  one  direction, 
the  ultimate  outcome  is  a  change  of  the  whole  life  of  the  people 
in  question. 

Under  all  the  early  civilizations  the  religion  follows  the 
lead  of  national  development.  As  the  state  is,  so  is  the  religion. 
Social  progress  indicates  religious  advancement.  Political 
growth  leads  to  a  modification  in  the  character  of  the  religion. 
Because  the  early  states  largely  grew  up  in  a  considerable  de- 
gree of  isolation  from  each  other,  the  religions  developed  largely 
in  independence.  Probably  no  state  was  without  influence  from 
some  other  or  wholly  failed  to  impress  itself  in  some  degree  on 
those  in  its  immediate  vicinity.  In  the  absence,  however,  of 
means  of  communication  and  transportation,  most  states  were 
not  in  immediate  touch  with  their  neighbors,  as  is  now  the  case ; 
and  they  were  not  directly  and  immediately  influenced  by  what 
was  proceeding  outside  their  own  borders.  There  resulted 
religious  growth  largely  conditioned  by  the  inward  life  of  the 
state,  and  according  to  its  material,  ethical,  and  cultural 
progress. 


What  has  been  just  said  will  apply  especially  to  the  religious 
progress  of  China.  One  of  the  most  isolated  of  all  the  early 
civilizations,  it  was  not  wholly  shut  off  from  outside  influences; 
but  was  comparatively  little  affected  from  outside  its  own  bor- 
ders before  the  time  of  the  invasion  of  Buddhism.  China  was 
to  a  large  extent  geographically  isolated,  because  of  the  exten- 
sive desert  to  the  westward,  and  the  mountain  barriers  to  the 
south  and  south-westward,  with  few  avenues  of  transit  into  the 
regions  beyond.  The  result  was  that  in  China  we  find  a  more 
independent  development  of  religion  than  in  any  other  part  of 

[194] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

the  world,  unless  it  be  in  the  instance  of  Mexico  and  Peru. 
For  this  reason,  it  may  be,  the  religion  of  China  was  very  con- 
servative, closely  adhered  to  the  primitive  animism,  nature- 
worship,  and  reverence  for  ancestors. 

Chinese  traditions  give  us  only  the  most  limited  intimations 
as  to  the  beginnings  of  the  civilization  which  grew  up  in  that 
land.  We  infer,  however,  from  such  knowledge  as  we  possess, 
that  the  state  developed  from  a  condition  of  tribal  society, 
through  feudalism,  to  a  federal  monarchy  of  the  loosest  possible 
type.  In  the  time  of  Confucius  there  were  many  states,  and 
these  were  in  almost  constant  contention  with  each  other.  His 
life  was  largely  devoted  to  the  task  of  reconciling  these  states 
with  each  other,  and  to  the  bringing  about  such  unity  of  the 
people  as  would  promote  morality  and  the  general  welfare. 

At  first  there  appears  to  have  been  a  tribal  society,  each 
tribe  having  a  number  of  clans,  with  exogamy,  and  animism, 
reverence  for  animals,  and  worship  of  the  powers  of  nature. 
With  the  growth  of  ancestor-worship,  which  came  with  the  later 
stages  of  tribal  society,  and  an  advancing  patriarchalism,  there 
appeared,  under  feudalism,  a  perfected  type  of  naturism.  The 
family  being  the  most  primary  and  the  most  important  of 
Chinese  social  institutions,  its  political  and  its  religious  life 
alike  partook  of  the  type  thus  created.  The  state  became  an 
enlarged  family,  with  gradings  upward  from  the  household, 
through  the  village,  the  province,  to  the  kingdom  itself.  The 
political  methods  employed  were  essentially  those  suggested  by 
the  organization  and  government  of  the  family.  The  king  or 
emperor  was  only  the  father  of  the  state;  and  as  the  head 
of  the  family  managed  its  affairs,  so  the  emperor  and  his  gov- 
ernment managed  the  interests  of  the  state.  The  result  was 
that  the  religion  of  China  was  a  family  religion,  with  Heaven 
and  Earth  as  the  great  universal  parents,  with  the  Emperor  as 

[195] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

their  heir  and  representative  in  the  human  world.  The  worship 
was  essentially  that  by  the  family  of  its  ancestors,  conducted 
by  the  head  of  the  family,  in  the  family  mansion  or  in  some 
place  especially  connected  with  it.  The  village  worship  was 
that  of  a  group  of  households,  probably  all  related  to  each  other ; 
but  of  the  same  essential  nature.  On  behalf  of  the  state  the 
Emperor  led  in  the  imperial  worship  of  Divine  Heaven;  but 
it  was  also  of  the  family  type,  a  recognition  of  the  kinship  of 
the  lowest  family  all  the  way  up  to  the  Emperor  as  at  the  head 
of  the  great  family  of  the  nation,  and  then  still  higher  up  to  the 
one  imperial  family  of  all  the  dead  and  all  the  living  under 
the  supremacy  of  Shang-ti,  Father  Heaven. 

The  Chinese  religion  has,  perhaps  owing  its  early  isolation, 
remained  distinctly  animistic  and  of  the  ancestral  type.  It  has 
no  developed  mythology,  no  pantheon  of  great  gods,  and,  con- 
sequently, no  priesthood.  The  religion  being  throughout  dis- 
tinctly of  the  family  type,  there  has  been  no  demand  that  the 
rituals  and  the  ceremonials,  as  well  as  the  prayers  to  Imperial 
Heaven,  should  call  for  a  distinctive  class  in  order  to  their 
administration. 

If  the  Chinese  have  felt  no  need  for  a  great  number  of 
gods,  and  their  religion  is  in  no  inconsiderable  degree  a  mono- 
theism, yet  they  have  repaired  this  limitation,  if  such  it  is,  by 
the  vast  number  of  the  nature-  and  ancestor-spirits  in  which 
they  believe.  Nowhere  has  daemonism  and  spiritism  been  so 
nearly  universal.  The  whole  world  is  peopled  with  these  be- 
ings, mostly  beneficent,  but  also  very  often  evil  in  nature  and 
intent,  needing  frequent  propitiation  and  exorcism. 

What  we  find  in  China  we  find  also  in  Corea  and  Japan, 
for  these  countries  were  a  unit  as  to  their  culture,  the  Chinese 
carrying  at  an  early  time  their  civilization  into  both  of  these 
other  lands.  The  Japanese  having  proved  themselves  highly 

[196] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

intellectual  and  progressive  in  our  day,  we  naturally  assume 
that  they  have  always  displayed  the  same  qualities.  The  early 
religion  of  this  people,  however,  shows  a  paucity  of  those  higher 
characteristics  we  anticipate  discovering  in  an  alert  and  ad- 
vancing people.  The  gods  are  not  distinctly  anthropomorphic 
or  individualized,  not  even  to  the  extent  we  find  in  Polynesia 
and  America.  They  are  nature-powers  with  no  positive  personal 
qualities.  The  mythology  is  primitive,  almost  degenerate,  and 
with  no  large  phases  of  action  and  energy  displayed.  In  this 
respect  the  Kojiki  and  Nihongi,  the  early  books  in  which  it  was 
presented,  show  it  to  have  been  one  of  the  rudest  and  least  ad- 
vanced to  be  found  among  any  people  progressing  toward  civ- 
ilization. As  in  China,  the  religion  was  largely  a  worship  of 
nature  and  of  ancestors.  Every  natural  object  had  its  god  and 
all  nature  was  a  dwelling-place  of  spirits  innumerable. 

Advancing,  however,  through  a  prolonged  feudal  period 
to  statehood  of  an  imperial  type,  the  religion  of  Japan  has  been 
gradually  modified,  and  in  the  direction  of  a  priestly  class  ad- 
ministering the  rites  devoted  to  the  family  gods  and  to  the 
great  powers  of  nature.  Animism  has  not  disappeared,  an- 
cestorism  remains  prominent  and  the  regard  for  nature,  as  the 
dwelling-place  of  powerful  spirits,  continues  with  almost  un- 
abated effectiveness. 

II 

Turning  to  Egypt,  which  has  many  characteristics  similar 
to  those  found  in  China,  we  may  observe  that  religion  in  the 
Nile  valley  has  been  modified  in  intimate  connection  with  the 
growth  of  the  social  and  political  evolution  of  the  land.  We 
know  little  of  the  primitive  conditions,  but  we  may  infer  that 
they  were  those  of  a  stone-age  people,  with  animism  of  the 
usual  type,  probably  quite  similar  to  that  found  in  many  parts 
of  Africa  at  the  present  time.  Then  came  tribal  society,  with 

[197] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

its  growth  from  primitive  bands  of  the  hunting  type,  its  advance 
to  a  form  of  feudalism,  then  the  formation  of  two  states,  a 
northern  and  a  southern,  and  finally  the  unity  of  the  whole  of 
the  valley  in  one  mighty  empire.  In  the  early  time  the  valley 
was  settled  by  tribes  along  the  greater  part  of  its  length,  per- 
haps in  the  totemic  stage  of  development,  with  each  tribe  hav- 
ing an  animal  ancestor  or  guardian.  When  the  state  form  of 
organization  was  reached  the  country  was  still  divided  into 
districts,  each  of  which  was  named  after  an  animal.  Probably 
these  nomes,  as  they  were  called,  were  the  territories  of  the  orig- 
inal tribes.  What  had  taken  place,  then,  was  the  unification  of  a 
considerable  number  of  tribes  under  one  general  political  or- 
ganization. This  process  of  growth  from  bands  and  tribes  to 
an  empire  marks  also  the  general  direction  of  the  gradual  unifi- 
cation of  the  religion  of  the  people  of  the  Nile  valley,  its  de- 
velopment of  larger  conceptions,  and  of  higher  grades  of  divinity. 
As  in  China,  Egypt  in  the  early  period  had  no  priestly 
class,  and  the  king  was  the  head  of  the  national  worship. 
Beginning  in  animism,  passing  up  through  ancestor-worship  to 
an  elevated  form  of  theism,  the  Egyptian  people  retained 
throughout  their  belief  in  many  gods.  As  in  most  other  ancient 
lands,  this  was  owing,  to  no  small  extent,  to  the  fact  that  each 
tribe  had  its  own  divinity,  and  each  of  these  was  incorporated 
into  the  national  system  when  that  came  into  existence.  This 
tendency  was  forwarded  by  the  fact  that  Egypt  was  in  intimate 
relations  with  the  Berber  peoples  on  the  west  and  the  Arabs 
on  the  east.  In  the  period  of  its  highest  political  development 
it  made  war  in  Syria,  Babylonia,  and  in  the  Hittite  land.  This 
brought  the  people  into  relations  with  the  religions  of  these 
nations  to  the  eastward  and  northward,  and  to  the  assimilation 
of  their  rites  and  beliefs  to  a  considerable  extent.  In  time  came 
the  Greek  and  Roman  conquests;  and  still  other  religious 

[198] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

changes  more  or  less  assimiliating  the  products  of  these  later 
political  developments. 

The  Egyptians,  however,  were  very  conservative  in  regard 
to  all  which  concerned  their  religion,  and  were  always  reluc- 
tant to  make  anything  more  than  superficial  changes  in  their 
mythology  and  ritual.  The  old  religion  remained  through  all 
the  centuries  of  Egyptian  history,  and  the  changes  made  were 
of  the  nature  of  additions  rather  than  of  assimilations.  In 
some  respects  more  truly  than  any  other  people  they  venerated 
the  dead,  partly  because  they  most  firmly  believed  in  the  resur- 
rection of  the  body,  and  partly  because  they  had  attained  to 
a  firm  conviction  that  the  soul  is  to  live  immortally.  Great 
monuments  were  erected  to  enshrine  the  mummies  of  the  dead, 
and  in  order  that  the  proper  respect  might  be  paid  them. 

In  however  large  degree  the  Egyptians  resembled  the 
Chinese  in  various  particulars,  they  greatly  differed  from  them 
in  others.  Their  mythology  was  far  richer  and  more  elaborate, 
and  their  gods  were  of  a  far  more  definite  personal  type.  How- 
ever, as  in  the  case  of  the  Chinese,  they  venerated  animals, 
and  even  worshipped  them;  and  they  included  the  great  pow- 
ers of  nature  as  gods  in  their  pantheon,  even  the  Nile  itself. 
The  sun-god  Ea  was  theoretically  the  chief  of  their  divinities, 
and  the  other  gods  were  largely  grouped  around  the  principle 
of  sex,  including  Osiris  and  Isis.  None  of  the  gods  were  infinite, 
omnipresent  or  omniscient.  There  inhered  in  them  all  the  limi- 
tations of  humanity,  with  its  weaknesses  and  defects. 

Naturally,  the  character  of  the  country,  the  dependence  of 
the  people  on  the  Nile  and  its  annual  inundation  of  the  land, 
and  the  agricultural  pursuits  of  the  whole  country,  had  a  very 
important  influence  on  the  evolution  of  the  religion  and  the  de- 
velopment of  its  mythology.  The  principle  of  fertility,  the 
necessities  of  growth  for  plants  and  animals,  the  anxious  wait- 

[199] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  EELIGION 

ing  for  the  round  of  the  seasons,  found  their  intimate  expres- 
sion in  many  of  the  phases  of  the  religious  life.  Light  became 
of  the  utmost  importance,  and  was  recognized  in  the  worship 
of  the  sun,  its  overcoming  of  darkness  and  the  attendant  evil. 
This  found  expression  in  the  corresponding  idea  that  life  is 
able  to  overcome  death,  which  plays  such  a  great  part  in  the 
remarkable  Book  of  the  Dead.  Ra  as  typifying  light,  and 
warmth,  and  growth,  overcomes  the  serpent  Apap,  the  embodi- 
ment of  darkness  and  whatever  it  represents  for  man. 

Every  interest  of  life  came  under  the  influence  of  the 
Egyptian  religion.  Worship  was  domestic  as  well  as  public; 
and  it  included  alike  birth,  marriage,  and  death.  There  were 
lucky  and  unlucky  days,  dancing  had  a  religious  significance, 
music  played  a  considerable  part  in  the  religious  services,  magic 
retained  its  part  in  the  religion;  but  the  festivals  of  sowing 
and  harvest  were  in  many  respects  of  the  greatest  importance. 
The  two  ceremonies  which  were  the  most  popular  were  those 
of  fertility,  which  took  place  in  connection  with  planting,  and 
that  celebrated  at  the  harvest  period.  The  first  of  these  festi- 
vals was  connected  intimately  with  Osiris  as  the  god  of  fertility, 
and  his  images  or  representations  played  a  large  part  in  its 
symbolisms.  There  were  other  festivals,  some  of  them  con- 
nected with  the  kingship,  one  of  them  coming  once  in  thirty 
years,  and  celebrating  the  deification  of  the  king  as  Osiris. 

A  remarkable  exemplification  of  the  manner  in  which  the 
union  of  nomes  into  states  affected  the  religion  may  be  seen  in 
connection  with  the  myth  of  Osiris.  In  the  tribal  period  the 
three  personages  of  this  myth  were  quite  independent  deities, 
with  no  connection  with  each  other  whatever.  Each  was  the 
deity  of  a  separate  nome;  but  when  these  nomes  were  brought 
together  and  unified  in  a  higher  political  organization,  the 
three  gods  were  amalgamated  and  grew  into  a  family.  In  his 

[200] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

article  on  the  Egyptian  Religion,  in  the  Encylopsedia  of  Re- 
ligion and  Ethics,  Flinders  Petrie  says  of  this  process  of  coales- 
cence: ''Thus  the  best  known  triad  of  Egypt  was  compounded 
of  the  gods  of  three  independent  tribes,  Osiris,  Isis,  and  Horus, 
who  were  linked  as  a  family  when  the  tribes  were  fused  to- 
gether." The  same  process  undoubtedly  went  on  in  many  other 
directions,  and  the  gods  grew,  and  the  religion  developed  with 
the  changes  in  the  social  and  political  evolution  of  the  Egyptian 
people. 

It  would  be  interesting  to  follow  the  Egyptian  religion 
through  its  several  stages  of  growth  and  decay,  to  enumerate 
its  numerous  gods  and  their  attributes,  to  indicate  how  the 
rituals  and  festivals  grew  as  the  religion  unfolded,  and  what 
social  purposes  to  which  they  answered.  To  accomplish  this 
task  however  would  require  more  space  than  it  is  possible  to 
assign  it  here,  and  would  not  directly  serve  the  purpose  had  in 
view  in  these  chapters.  In  a  brief  way  it  has  been  intimated 
how  the  Egyptian  religion  was  in  large  measure  the  result  of 
the  fortunes  of  the  Egyptian  people,  and  reflected  their  life  and 
their  social  ideas.  This  method  of  interpretation  might  be  car- 
ried much  further,  but  space  forbids  any  extension  of  the  treat- 
ment accorded  it  in  these  pages. 


Ill 

We  may  proceed  to  a  brief  survey  of  the  Semitic  religions, 
with  the  same  object  in  view,  that  of  suggesting  a  close  rela- 
tionship between  the  religions  of  these  peoples  and  their  forms 
of  social  and  political  organization.  The  Semites  included  the 
peoples  of  Arabia,  Palestine,  Phoenicia,  Syria,  and  those  of 
Mesopotamia,  together  with  the  Chaldeans  and  Assyrians.  The 
Egyptians  were  closely  related  to  the  Semites,  as  also  were  the 

[201] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF  RELIGION 

Ethiopians,  though  in  both  instances  there  was  an  ethnological 
basis  in  the  native  African  tribes,  with  infusions  from  other 
sources. 

The  Semitic  peoples  afford  a  good  illustration  of  the  man- 
ner in  which  religions  change  with  political  evolution,  since 
they  included  the  Arabs,  who  were  before  Mohammed  in  the 
tribal  stage  of  evolution,  and  were  passing  slowly  upward  to 
the  feudal  stage.  On  the  other  hand,  the  peoples  of  the  Euphra- 
tes valley  had  reached  a  very  high  stage  of  industrial  and  politi- 
cal development  as  far  back  as  4000  years  B.  C.  Even  then  they 
had  attained  to  large  and  prosperous  cities,  a  highly  elab- 
orated art  and  architecture,  an  advanced  stage  of  writing  and 
literature,  and  to  one  of  the  most  highly  developed  mythologies 
and  systems  of  worship.  Regarding  the  beginning  of  Chaldean, 
or  what  is  usually  known  as  Babylonian,  religion,  the  monu- 
ments afford  us  only  the  faintest  intimations.  It  is  probable,  if 
not  certain,  that  the  Semites  in  the  valley  of  the  lower  Euphra- 
tes, or  in  its  near  vicinity,  followed  a  people  of  Mongolian  or 
Turanian  origin.  Since  the  Semites  originated  in  Arabia,  and 
migrated  to  the  great  river  valleys  at  a  very  early  period,  it 
is  by  no  means  impossible  that  they  were  preceded  by  a  people 
of  other  race  and  religion.  As  this  appears  to  have  been  the 
case,  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  the  Semites  assimiliated  the 
culture  and  the  religion  of  this  people;  and  there  are  Borne 
important  reasons  for  believing  this  to  have  been  true  in  a 
period  far  remote,  perhaps  approximating  5000  B.  C.  This 
people  is  usually  known  as  the  Sumerian. 

The  religion  of  the  primitive  Arabs,  as  probably  that  of 
all  the  early  Semites,  was  animistic  and  of  the  nature  of  sham- 
anism, that  is,  largely  given  to  magic  and  the  propitiation  of 
spirits.  In  no  small  degree  this  was  the  character  of  the  re- 
ligion of  the  early  settlers  of  Judea.  They  came  from  northern 

[202] 


THE    SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

Arabia  into  that  region,  gradually  overcame  the  Canaanites, 
with  their  worship  of  Baal  and  the  other  gods  of  a  harsh  and 
somewhat  cruel  religion,  probably  also  of  Semitic  origin.  At 
first  this  people,  whom  we  know  in  their  successive  stages  of 
advancement  as  Israelites,  Hebrews  and  Jews,  were  in  the  tribal 
period  of  culture,  with  the  usual  characteristics  of  such  peoples. 
They  were  probably  animists,  made  use  of  magic,  worshipped 
plants  and  animals,  revered  the  powers  of  heaven  and  earth, 
and  were  polytheists.  When  the  sacred  books  of  the  Jews  came 
into  their  final  shape,  in  the  period  two  or  three  centuries  B.  C., 
they  were  edited  with  the  purpose  of  convincing  their  readers 
that  these  phases  of  the  old  worship  were  wild  aberrations  of 
certain  elements  in  the  population;  but  that  they  had  no  real 
place  in  the  beliefs  of  the  great  majority  of  the  people.  That 
assumption  we  can  no  longer  accept,  for  we  find  mythology, 
legend,  folk-lore,  and  witchcraft  woven  into  the  very  texture 
of  the  early  developments  of  this  religion.  In  the  three  volumes, 
extending  to  seventeen  hundred  pages,  of  his  Folk-Lore  in  the 
Old  Testament:  Studies  in  Comparative  Religion,  Legend  and 
Law,  J.  G.  Frazer  has  most  elaborately  dealt  with  the  folk- 
lore and  legendary  elements  in  the  Jewish  scriptures.  He  deals 
with  the  legends  of  the  early  ages  of  the  world,  the  patriarchal 
age,  the  time  of  the  Judges  and  the  Kings,  and  the  origination 
of  the  Law.  From  every  part  of  the  world  he  gathers  illus- 
trative materials  showing  that  this  great  body  of  folk-lore  and 
legend  is  to  be  widely  parallelled  elsewhere  on  the  part  of  many 
savage  and  barbarous  peoples.  In  a  word,  he  makes  it  fully 
apparent  that  there  is  nothing  peculiarly  Jewish  in  the  earlier 
books  of  their  collection  of  sacred  writings. 

The  national  god,  Yahweh,  was  of  late  origin  or  greatly 
changed  in  character  with  the  evolution  of  the  Hebrew  state. 
At  first  borrowed,  very  probably,  from  another  people,  and 

[203] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION   OF  RELIGION 

when  first  taken  over  by  the  Hebrews  was  a  god  of  thunder 
or  of  storm,  he  gradually  came  to  supersede  Baal  and  Chemosh, 
the  gods  of  the  preceding  peoples  in  Palestine.  In  the  books 
describing  the  early  phases  of  Hebrew  life  in  Canaan,  we  find 
that  a  prolonged  struggle  took  place  between  these  gods  and 
Yahweh,  with  the  result  that  he  became  greatly  victorious.  It 
may  be  recognized,  however,  that  this  acceptance  of  Yahweh 
was  only  by  a  small  class,  and  that  the  winning  over  of  the 
whole  body  of  the  people  did  not  come  for  many  centuries. 

It  was  through  the  work  of  the  prophets  that  Yahweh  finally 
became  the  national  god.  The  early  members  of  this  class  were 
essentially  polytheists,  and  recognized  Baal,  and  the  gods  of 
the  neighboring  peoples,  as  also  existing,  and  as  real  as  their 
own.  At  first  Yahweh  was  no  more  than  a  national  god,  the 
exclusive  divinity  of  the  Hebrew  people.  Almost  certainly  he 
did  not  become  in  any  true  sense  a  universal  god,  the  one  real 
Divine  Being,  until  after  the  return  from  captivity  of  those  who 
had  been  in  exile  because  of  their  fidelity  to  their  own  divinity. 
The  contact  with  the  religions  of  Persia  and  Babylonia,  both  of 
which  had  theistic  phases  of  much  importance,  and  especially 
the  former,  undoubtedly  had  a  considerable  influence  in  develop- 
ing the  conception  of  Yahweh  as  the  one  universal  God.  Prob- 
ably, also,  the  bitter  experiences  of  exile,  and  of  weeping  by 
the  willows  of  Babylon  on  the  part  of  these  exiles,  had  an  effect 
in  creating  a  new  devotion  to  their  own  god.  Many  an  indi- 
vidual cares  little  for  religion  until  some  great  disappointment 
or  sorrow  comes  upon  him ;  and  this  may  also  be  the  experience 
of  peoples.  Exile  made  these  men  believe  that  they  had  been 
faithless  to  their  own  true  god  or  they  would  not  have  been 
crushed  as  a  nation.  Therefore,  they  returned  to  preach  and 
practice  a  more  ardent  loyalty  to  Yahweh,  and  to  accept  as 
never  before  the  conclusion  that  they  belonged  to  the  chosen 

[204] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF  RELIGION 

people  of  this  god  of  theirs.  Tried  as  by  fire,  they  came  to  the 
developed  faith  of  the  Hebrew  in  one  exclusive  and  jealous  god, 
the  Lord  of  Heaven  and  Earth. 

The  claim  often  put  forth  that  the  Hebrews  had  revealed 
to  them  the  faith  in  monotheism,  which  they  gradually  came  to 
accept,  might  be  made  also  of  most  of  the  other  great  religions 
of  the  ancient  world.  Monotheism  is  not  the  exclusive  idea  of 
any  one  people  or  religion,  but  may  be  found  in  one  or  another 
phase  of  its  evolution  in  nearly  every  part  of  the  world.  The 
clans  or  gentes  in  tribal  society  worshipped  one  exclusive  god 
as  their  very  own,  and  they  might  probably  be  called  monothe- 
ists,  and  especially  since  they  likewise  believed  that  this  god  had 
been  revealed  to  them.  Polytheism  results  because,  when  clans 
are  federated  into  tribes,  tribes  into  feudal  communities,  and 
these  into  states,  there  is  a  constant  process  of  coalescence  of  the 
several  gods,  and  of  the  rituals  and  worships  connected  with 
them.  In  nearly  all  communities,  and  especially  those  of  the 
higher  type,  there  is  the  distinct  recognition  of  some  one  god 
as  superior  to  all  the  others,  and  as  the  great  essential  force 
that  controls  the  ongoings  of  the  universe  and  humanity. 

IV 

If  we  turn  back  to  the  Babylonians,  we  shall  find  in  an  early 
period  that  Marduk  was  the  high  lord  over  all  gods  and  men, 
though  there  were  many  subordinate  gods  reigning  over  various 
phases  of  nature  or  human  affairs,  but  subject  to  his  will,  as 
dukes  and  earls  are  under  the  control  of  kings.  What  this 
means  is,  that  as  the  social  and  political  affairs  of  the  people 
were  reduced  to  order,  a  king  placed  at  the  head  of  the  state, 
and  the  subordinate  ranks,  grade  after  grade,  made  subject 
to  his  final  authority,  so  in  religion  order  and  system  grew  in 

[205] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

the  same  manner  and  to  the  same  ends.  As  men  obeyed  the  laws, 
which  grew  to  be  more  precise  and  specific,  so  did  the  gods 
also  obey  the  dictates  of  the  great  imperial  sanctions  and  pur- 
poses of  the  Supreme  God,  from  whom  emanated  all  order  and 
law.  As  men  grew  into  a  more  definite  and  systematic  con- 
ception of  ethical  principles,  and  into  a  more  definite  accep- 
tance of  theories  of  conduct,  so  did  the  gods  become  more  and 
more  ethical  in  their  relations  to  one  another  and  to  the  nation 
they  Berved. 

The  myths  of  the  Babylonians  were  perhaps  midway  in 
their  display  of  creative  power  between  those  of  China  in  their 
paucity,  and  those  of  India  and  Greece  in  their  brilliancy  and 
their  elaborateness.  The  creation  story  is  somewhat  rude,  but 
it  has  for  us  the  interest  that  it  was  at  the  basis  of  that  we  find 
in  the  Hebrew  book  of  Genesis.  It  has  come  now  to  be  an  ac- 
cepted conclusion,  that  the  Hebrews  adopted  their  myths  from 
the  Babylonians  or  that  they  were  the  generally  wide-spread 
and  common  Semitic  attempts  at  an  interpretation  of  the  origin 
of  the  universe  and  of  man.  The  manner  in  which  the  Hebrews 
reconstructed  these  myths,  and  brought  them  into  conformity 
with  their  advanced  theism,  undoubtedly  belongs  to  that  period 
when  all  the  history  of  this  people  was  being  reconstructed  to 
meet  the  demands  of  the  more  advanced  beliefs  of  the  later  time. 
We  cannot  to-day  regard  the  story  of  creation,  the  origin  of 
man,  the  garden  of  beauty,  the  fall  of  man,  the  casting  out  into 
the  darkness  of  savagery,  the  flood  and  the  rescue  of  one  family, 
the  condemnation  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  the  talking  of  Abra- 
ham with  his  god,  the  fall  of  the  city  of  Jericho,  the  standing 
still  of  the  sun,  and  many  another  folk-tale  of  the  early  time,  as 
other  than  mythical.  These  legends  are  of  essentially  the  same 
nature  as  those  which  may  be  found  in  every  part  of  the  world, 
and  are  to  be  interpreted  in  the  same  manner,  as  expressions  of 

[206] 


THE    SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

the  expanding  nature  of  the  human  mind  under  the  influence 
of  industrial,  social  and  political  phases  of  evolution. 

Some  of  the  myths  and  epics  of  Babylonia  are  of  great  in- 
terest, especially  that  of  the  going  down  of  Ishtar  into  the  world 
of  the  dead,  and  that  of  the  adventures  of  the  culture-hero 
Gilgamish.  These  show  the  great  literary  power  that  had  been 
developed  among  the  Chaldeans,  and  the  nature  of  their  con- 
structive genius.  These  epics  may  be  studied  in  connection  with 
the  developments  of  the  relations  of  Tammuz  or  Adonis,  Aphro- 
dite, Hyacinth,  Attis  and  Cybele,  Osiris  and  Isis.  In  such  myths 
as  these  we  find  the  early  Semitic  religions  interpreting  them- 
selves in  their  largest  intellectual  capacities. 

These  myths  make  it  certain  that  the  Semites,  as  well  as 
the  more  barbarian  peoples  like  the  Chinese,  and  the  more  ad- 
vanced of  the  Aryans,  regarded  the  gods  as  of  both  sexes;  and 
that  they  were  bound  together  by  ties  of  affection  and  mar- 
riage. The  love  of  Adonis  and  Ishtar  was  of  a  romantic  quality, 
and  symbolized  those  forces  of  nature  which  gave  spring  and 
winter,  growth  and  decay,  life  and  death.  In  several  of  these 
myths  the  wife  is  the  older  of  the  two,  and  appears  to  be  the 
mother  of  her  lover,  as  well  as  standing  to  him  in  the  other 
relation.  The  mother  who  marries  her  son,  as  is  in  several  in- 
stances the  case  in  the  Mediterranean  religions,  is  not  to  be 
assumed  to  mean  that  this  was  a  direct  interpretation  of  hu- 
man relations.  Mother-nature  or  Mother-wheat  may  bring  forth 
a  son  who  symbolizes  the  plant  which  grows  from  the  earth  as 
the  result  of  the  coming  of  spring  and  summer.  For  these  myths 
are  interpretations  of  the  processes  of  nature,  of  the  eternal 
round  of  spring  and  summer  and  winter.  The  upspringing 
vegetation  of  spring  appears  as  one  god,  that  of  the  perfected 
growth  of  summer,  one  of  the  different  character,  and  the  death 
that  comes  upon  all  things  in  winter,  still  another.  This  last 

[207] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

stage,  however,  is  usually  represented  as  the  death  of  a  god, 
and  his  resurrection  when  the  spring  comes  back  again. 

If  we  choose  to  study  the  several  stages  in  the  evolution 
of  the  Semitic  religions,  from  that  of  the  primitive  Arabs  to  that 
of  the  most  advanced  Babylonians  and  Hebrews,  we  shall  find 
them  keeping  pace  with  the  social  and  political  evolution  con- 
stantly proceeding  from  century  to  century.  Such  a  study  must 
convince  us  that,  while  no  one  of  these  religions  may  be  a  direct 
creation  of  the  social  process  in  every  phase  of  it,  yet  that  the 
two  developments  are  intimately  connected,  and  that  it  is  the 
social  evolution  which  precedes  the  other.  As  are  the  laws,  BO 
are  the  gods.  The  nature  of  the  people  determines  the  nature 
of  the  religion.  The  worship  reflects  the  standards  of  the  tribal 
or  national  life.  The  myths  are  no  more  than  the  inmost  life 
of  the  people  translated  into  the  actions  of  great  personalities. 


The  evolution  of  the  Aryan  religions  proceeds  in  the  same 
manner  as  those  of  the  Semites,  and  those  of  the  other  savage 
and  barbarian  peoples.  In  all  of  them,  even  the  very  highest, 
we  find  the  presence  of  animism,  magic,  animal-  and  ancestor- 
worship,  a  multitude  of  contending  and  brutal  gods,  a  vast 
world  of  ghosts  and  spirits,  and  developing  rituals  and  festivals. 
The  myths  of  the  Aryans  are  more  elaborated,  with  personalities 
more  distinct  and  real,  and  expressing  greater  artistic  and 
epical  power,  than  those  of  most  other  races. 

The  Aryans  include  the  Persians  and  Hindus,  Greeks,  Bo- 
mans,  Slavs,  Teutons,  and  Celts.  Probably  the  lowest  religion 
found  among  these  races  is  that  of  the  early  Slavs,  which  was 
thoroughly  animistic  and  magical,  crude  in  the  extreme,  and 
without  a  mythology  at  all  developed.  In  the  earliest  period 

[208] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

of  which  we  have  any  historic  knowledge,  they  appear  to  have 
been  at  about  the  same  stage  of  advancement  as  the  pre-Islamic 
Arabs.  From  this  stage  in  the  evolution  of  religion  the  Aryans 
advanced  to  the  highly  elaborated  religions  found  in  India  and 
Greece. 

When  we  first  know  of  them,  all  the  Aryan  religions  re- 
mained animistic,  magical,  in  the  stage  of  animal-worship,  and 
beset  with  ghosts  and  spirits.  In  some  of  them,  it  may  be, 
these  phases  of  religious  expression  were  in  the  form  of  sur- 
vivals; but  for  none  of  them  had  they  been  cast  aside  as  no 
longer  serviceable.  What  enabled  the  Aryan  peoples  to  turn 
away  from  them  was  not  so  much  the  higher  thinking  of  the 
philosophers,  the  Platos  and  the  Aristotles;  but  that  the  state 
was  developing,  that  tribal  society  was  being  outgrown,  that 
greater  communities  than  the  city-state  were  coming  into  ex- 
istence, that  feudalism  was  being  superseded,  and  that  the 
several  states  were  coming  into  contact  with  each  other,  that 
myths,  religions,  and  philosophies  were  being  communicated 
from  one  nation  to  another,  and  that  a  world-unity  in  this  direc- 
tion was  being  formed,  albeit  a  world-unity  extending  only  a 
little  way  outside  the  valley  of  the  Mediterranean,  reaching  from 
Persia  to  Kome,  and  including  Egypt. 

What  the  tribal  religion  was  among  the  Aryans  may  be 
seen  in  the  case  of  the  Teutons,  who  worshipped  great  nature 
powers,  had  a  mythology  of  a  somewhat  advanced  type,  believed 
in  a  world  where  the  evil  were  cruelly  punished,  and  accepted 
an  animistic  conception  of  the  soul,  ghosts  and  spirits.  As  with 
most  of  the  other  Aryans  they  believed  in  human  beings  who 
possessed  godlike  powers,  and  in  some  instances  were  actually 
gods  in  their  own  nature.  Charms,  incantations,  magical  pro- 
cesses were  made  use  of  in  order  to  control  the  spirits  and  the 
gods.  Among  the  Vikings  of  Scandinavia  the  gods  were  of 

[209] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

like  nature  with  the  men  of  that  bold  and  warring  race,  great 
heroes,  born  fighters,  daring  adventurers,  and  cruel  haters  of 
those  who  offended  them  or  refused  to  obey  their  commands. 
Very  human  gods  were  these,  even  if,  as  in  the  instance  of 
Thor,  they  were  nature-powers,  such,  as  thunder,  raised  to 
superhuman  expression. 

The  religion  of  the  Celts  may  have  been  in  some  degree 
less  fierce  and  cruel  than  that  of  the  Teutons;  but  it  included 
all  the  features  which  may  be  found  among  the  Germanic  tribes, 
and  widely  over  the  world,  as  we  have  seen  elsewhere.  Its  basis 
may  probably  be  found  in  nature- worship,  including  the  wor- 
ship of  animals,  rivers,  trees,  and  plants.  As  with  all  the  other 
Aryans,  much  of  their  ritual,  as  well  as  many  of  their  festivals, 
circled  around  the  growth  of  vegetation,  and  the  securing  of 
good  crops  by  magical  aids.  In  fact,  with  both  the  Teutons 
and  the  Celts,  magic  was  regarded  as  a  most  potent  force,  and 
was  largely  employed.  Witchcraft  extended  far  down  into  the 
middle  ages,  and  has  by  no  means  been  outgrown  as  yet.  It 
played  a  great  part  in  the  life  of  western  nations  for  many  years ; 
and  nothing  in  the  whole  history  of  religion  was  more  brutal, 
barbarous,  and  fearful  than  the  persecution  of  witches  by  the 
Christian  church,  when  many  thousands  of  women  lost  their 
lives. 

Here,  as  elsewhere,  a  process  went  on  which  is  often  met 
with  in  the  history  of  religion,  by  which  the  old  gods  were 
transformed  into  saints  or  devils  by  the  newer  and  more  pro- 
gressive faith  of  the  later  time.  Isis  became  the  Virgin  Mary, 
Demeter  was  transformed  into  a  male  as  St.  Demetrius,  and 
many  a  Teutonic  and  Celtic  god  or  goddess  lived  on  in  a  fresh 
form  as  a  power  capable  of  aiding  the  peasant  or  of  serving  the 
ends  of  the  church  in  keeping  alive  under  the  new  forms  the 
old  beliefs.  The  church  canonized  more  than  one  heathen  divin- 

[210] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF  RELIGION 

ity  as  a  Christian  saint.  The  witches  were  often  no  more  than 
the  old  goddesses  modified  to  suit  the  new  conceptions  in  regard 
to  the  nature  of  divinities  and  spirits.  Both  the  Celts  and  the 
Teutons  worshipped  goddesses  who  were  often  quite  equal  to  the 
gods,  and  also  worshipped  women  possessed  of  divine  qualities 
or  born  of  divine  parentage.  These  goddesses,  as  usual,  were 
connected  with  fertility,  the  productiveness  of  the  earth,  as 
well  as  the  growth  of  plants  and  animals. 

The  old  religions  of  the  Teutons  and  Celts  have  by  no  means 
as  yet  disappeared  from  the  life  of  to-day.  They  may  be  now 
described  as  "survivals;"  but  they  live  on  vitally  in  the  life 
of  the  peasants  and  those  of  little  education.  In  the  folk-lore, 
the  folk-customs,  the  festivals,  and  even  in  the  actual  beliefs 
of  great  numbers  of  persons  in  all  the  countries  of  Europe, 
these  old  religions  are  even  now  very  much  alive.  On  this  sub- 
ject, J.  G.  Frazer,  in  the  preface  to  the  first  edition  of  The 
Golden  Bough,  pertinently  observes:  "The  primitive  Aryan, 
in  all  that  regards  his  mental  fibre  and  texture,  is  not  extinct. 
He  is  amongst  us  to  this  day.  The  great  intellectual  and  moral 
forces  which  have  revolutionized  the  educated  world  have 
scarcely  affected  the  peasant.  In  his  inmost  beliefs  he  is  what 
his  forefathers  were  in  the  days  when  the  forest  trees  still  grew 
and  squirrels  played  on  the  ground  where  Rome  and  London 
now  stand. " 

Where  the  Aryans  originated  we  do  not  positively  know; 
but  it  was  probably  not  far  from  the  Baltic  sea.  Wherever  it 
may  have  been,  the  Aryans  were  much  given  to  migration,  wan- 
dered widely  in  Europe  and  Asia,  and  did  not  entirely  refuse 
to  invade  Africa.  They  wandered  widely  to  such  an  extent  that 
it  has  been  claimed  by  various  investigators  that  the  Veddahs  of 
Ceylon,  the  Todas  of  southern  India,  the  Ainus  of  Japan,  and 
the  Maotzi  of  China  were  of  this  racial  origin.  Nor  have  the 

[211] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION   OF  KELIGION 

peoples  of  the  Pacific  Islands  been  left  wholly  out  of  this  con- 
nection, some  of  them,  including  the  Australians,  presenting 
features  warranting  the  Aryan  designation.  These  claims  have 
not  been  substantiated,  and  probably  will  never  be  fully  justified. 
From  whatever  source  they  originally  came,  one  of  their  great 
migrations  was  into  central-southern  Asia,  and  finally  into 
India.  In  some  prehistoric  period  a  considerable  body  of  them 
appeared  to  the  eastward  and  northward  of  the  Persian  gulf. 
In  this  region  they  appear  to  have  remained  for  several  cen- 
turies, it  may  be,  and  then  they  divided,  one  part  remaining 
in  that  region  as  the  Persians  of  history,  and  the  other  pass- 
ing southward  and  invading  India. 


VI 

We  may  justly  assume  that  the  religion  of  this  undivided 
body  of  Aryans  was  similar  to  that  of  the  Slavs,  and  of  the 
Teutons  and  Celts  as  first  known  to  us.  Primarily  it  was 
animism,  with  shamanism  prominent,  a  worship  of  animals  and 
the  great  forces  of  nature,  and  with  a  gradual  development  of 
a  world  of  spirits  and  elemental  gods.  In  Persia  the  Aryans 
developed  a  worshipful  regard  for  fire,  and  either  accepted  it 
as  a  god  or  as  a  symbol  of  divinity.  They  also  worshipped  the 
heavenly  bodies,  and  came  to  have  an  occult  regard  for  the 
stars.  In  this  respect  they  followed  the  leading  of  the  Baby- 
lonians or  developed  a  kindred  interest  in  the  heavens  and  their 
nightly  display  of  constellations.  In  both  regions  there  grew 
up  the  beginnings  of  the  science  of  astronomy;  and  men  felt 
that  their  destinies  in  all  their  affairs  were  determined  in  large 
degree  by  the  occult  powers  exercised  by  the  heavens  over  them. 
There  appeared  in  Persia  a  reformer  by  the  name  of 
Zarathustra,  usually  known  as  Zoroaster,  who  gave  a  quite  new 

[212] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

form  and  meaning  to  the  old  religion.  In  no  small  degree  he 
was  a  creator,  as  well  as  a  reformer.  Probably  it  would  be 
truer  to  say  that  around  a  reformer  there  gathered  social  and 
intellectual  influences  which  in  time  produced  a  remarkable  re- 
ligion, not  wholly  new,  but  making  a  quite  distinct  advance  on 
the  old  nature-religion  of  the  Aryans.  It  is  by  no  means  certain 
that  such  a  person  existed  as  is  described  under  the  name  of 
Zoroaster,  though  it  is  probable,  if  not  wholly  certain,  that 
such  a  man  lived  and  brought  about  changes  in  the  ancient 
rituals  and  beliefs. 

Zoroaster  did  not  claim  to  have  been  a  god,  but  to  have 
been  commissioned  to  purify  the  old  religion,  and  to  bring  it 
into  conformity  with  the  new  needs  of  his  people.  Behind  this 
claim  of  divine  sanction  to  bring  about  required  reforms  we 
may  rightfully  assume  that  there  were  to  be  found  social  and 
political  causes  demanding  modifications  that  would  bring  the 
religion  to  a  condition  of  harmony  with  the  newer  phases  of  the 
national  life.  The  people  of  Persia  had  advanced  from  a  con- 
geries of  tribes  into  a  nation  moving  forward  towards  a  much 
higher  civilization  than  that  of  the  Aryans  when  they  migrated 
from  the  northward  into  the  territory  of  Persia. 

The  most  distinctly  marked  phase  of  the  religion  usually 
designated  as  Zoroasterianism  or  that  of  the  Avesta,  was  its 
dualism,  the  belief  in  two  gods,  one  good  and  one  evil.  Whence 
came  this  conception  of  duality  running  through  all  the  affairs 
of  nature  and  humanity,  it  is  not  now  possible  to  say.  Many 
students  of  this  religion  assume  that  it  is  to  be  found  in  the 
superior  moral  conceptions  of  Zoroaster,  that  he  saw  clearly 
the  ethical  distinction  between  the  good  and  the  evil,  righteous- 
ness and  sinfulness.  Without  doubt,  the  religion  of  the  Avesta 
is  one  that  places  great  emphasis  on  the  contrast  between  right 
conduct  and  sinful  behavior. 

[213] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION   OF  RELIGION 

The  claim,  however,  that  Zoroaster  was  superior  to  his 
time  in  this  respect  does  not  appear  to  be  fully  maintained; 
and  we  may  question  if  what  is  attributed  to  him  was  not  de- 
veloped at  a  later  period.  Was  it  rather,  as  in  Egypt,  that 
there  was  a  recognition  of  the  distinction  between  light  and 
darkness,  life  and  death?  Many  of  the  phases  of  the  Avestan 
religion  would  appear  to  confirm  this  conjecture,  though  we 
may  accept  the  conclusion  that  there  had  arisen  in  Persia  a 
fresh  insight  in  regard  to  ethical  problems,  with  a  greater  em- 
phasis on  conduct  beneficial  to  the  state  and  to  the  individual. 

Not  wholly  to  be  turned  aside  from,  however,  is  the  idea 
that  the  Persian  dualism  arose  in  those  primitive  conceptions 
we  find  in  the  Chinese  Yang  and  Yin,  the  Greek  Father-heaven 
and  Mother-earth,  and  the  principle  of  sex  as  fundamental  to 
all  interpretations  of  the  origin  and  nature  of  the  universe. 

A  great  amount  of  evidence  might  be  brought  together  in 
favor  of  the  suggestion  that  the  evil  side  of  the  dualism  on 
which  the  Zoroastrian  religion  was  founded  had  its  origin  in  the 
nature  of  the  receptive  or  non-creative  element  in  the  universe. 
This  conclusion  is  more  probable  than  that  it  was  purely  a  meta- 
physical or  even  an  ethical  consideration  which  was  at  the  foun- 
dation of  this  dualism.  It  may  be  that  no  such  distinction  was 
in  the  mind  of  Zoroaster,  but  in  those  ages  of  growing  folk- 
conceptions  it  may  probably  be  found  a  basic  hint  at  the  dual- 
ism which  formed  a  large  element  in  this  religion  of  the  Per- 
sian people. 

Zoroaster  was,  if  not  distinctly  a  monotheist,  at  least  closely 
approaching  that  type  of  belief.  His  Ahura  Mazda  or  Ormazd, 
though  opposed  by  Angro  Mainyash  or  Ahriman,  was  finally 
to  triumph;  and  the  whole  universe  was  to  come  under  his  rule 
of  beneficence  and  righteousness.  On  the  whole,  this  was  one 
of  the  most  noble  and  ethical  of  all  the  Aryan  religions,  and 

[214] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

had  a  very  considerable  influence  on  the  growth  of  the  religions 
of  the  Hebrews,  the  Greeks,  and  even  of  Christianity. 


VII 

Turning  southward,  we  follow  the  other  branch  of  the  east- 
ern Aryans  into  India.  They  invaded  that  peninsula  along  the 
valley  of  the  Indus,  and  then,  passing  eastward,  entered  the  val- 
ley of  the  Ganges.  When  they  entered  India  they  had  not  left 
behind  the  tribal  form  of  social  organization,  and,  they  have 
never  quite  outgrown  it,  as  the  Chinese  have  not.  In  India 
they  retained  also  a  large  measure  of  the  old  Aryan  animism, 
a  no  inconsiderable  measure  of  the  methods  of  magic,  and  had 
by  no  means  outgrown  animal-  and  nature- worship. 

As  they  passed  eastward  in  their  conquest  of  India,  they 
were  a  band  of  warriors,  always  armed  for  war,  for  invasion, 
and  for  the  subduing  of  the  native  populations.  In  the  epic 
poems  we  find  fully  described  this  phase  of  the  Indian  life,  its 
constant  readiness  for  war,  its  heroic  attitude  to  all  phases  of 
life,  and  its  determination  to  allow  nothing  to  hinder  the  aim 
to  bring  the  whole  of  the  peninsula  into  subjection  to  their 
arms.  Even  the  high  gods,  as  we  read  in  the  Bhagavat-gita, 
were  with  them  in  their  great  exploit,  and  made  it  certain  that 
their  aims  should  never  permanently  fail  of  their  object. 

As  they  moved  forward  to  their  successive  conquests,  these 
Aryans  developed  their  religion,  newly  conceived  their  gods, 
and  saw  in  the  wrhole  of  nature  the  presence  and  the  voice  of 
these  divine  beings.  The  heavens,  the  nightly  sky,  the  sun,  the 
planets  and  the  stars,  thunder,  mountains,  dawn,  the  growing 
world  of  vegetation,  the  earth  itself,  were  accepted  as  having 
divine  powers  or  as  being  the  abodes  of  mighty  supernatural 
beings.  To  these  powers  they  danced,  sang,  made  festival,  of- 

[215] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

fered  incense,  or  performed  ritual  ceremonials.  All  of  this 
was  reproduced  in  the  Vedas,  hymns  written  in  praise  of  the 
gods,  which  came  to  be  sung  at  their  services  of  worship.  More 
than  a  thousand  of  these  hymns  were  composed  during  the 
several  centuries  that  the  conquest  of  northern  India  was  pro- 
ceeding—  composed  but  not  written  —  for  this  people  did  not 
as  yet  possess  the  art  of  recording  their  compositions.  At  a 
later  time  these  hymns  were  brought  together  in  the  collection 
known  as  the  Rig- Veda,  the  last  book  of  which  was  composed 
under  the  conditions  following  the  completion  of  the  work  of 
conquest.  The  hymns  of  the  Rig- Veda  were  rearranged  for 
ritual  and  sacrificial  purposes  into  the  Yajur-Veda,  together 
with  a  number  of  hymns  especially  devoted  to  this  purpose. 
The  Sama-Veda  consists  of  the  hymns  arranged  for  chanting. 
In  the  Atharva-Veda  we  find  another,  and  more  primitive, 
phase  of  the  religion  of  these  Aryans.  The  hymns  are  here 
edited  with  the  intent  of  using  them  for  magical  purposes,  as 
charms,  incantations  and  conjurations. 

The  hymns  of  the  Rig- Veda  represent  or  express  a  very 
high  type  of  religion,  in  some  instances  rising  into  a  lofty  the- 
ism or  a  profound  pantheism.  In  the  Atharva-Veda  we  find  a 
religion  that  is  almost  primitive,  that  has  advanced  but  a  little 
if  at  all  above  shamanism.  It  would  be  difficult  to  say  in  what 
manner  or  degree  it  differs  from  the  shamanism  of  Siberia  or 
North  America.  If  it  has  advanced  at  all,  it  is  in  its  systematiza- 
tion,  and  its  ability  to  bring  a  higher  form  of  ritual  to  its  aid. 
We  may  be  rightly  puzzled  in  an  attempt  to  comprehend  how 
a  religion  so  far  advanced  as  that  of  the  Rig- Veda  can  bring 
forth  one  as  primitive  and  as  magical  as  that  of  the  Atharva- 
Veda.  Possibly,  we  may  be  inclined  to  believe  that  the  magic 
and  the  shamanism  are  much  older  than  the  more  spiritual  re- 

[216] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF  RELIGION 

ligion  of  the  Big- Veda,  though  it  may  seem  to  be  later  in  the 
relations  of  the  two  collections. 

As  the  hymns  were  gradually  added  to,  were  used  as  prayers 
to  the  gods  to  whom  they  were  addressed,  and  were  then  de- 
veloped into  rituals,  they  grew  to  have  a  constantly  greater 
meaning  to  the  Aryan  invaders.  At  last  they  were  accepted 
as  a  body  of  revelation,  and  to  them  were  ascribed  a  Bacred 
character.  It  is  because  of  this  growth  in  the  conception  of 
their  sacredness,  perhaps,  which  finally,  in  the  Atharva-Veda, 
gave  them  their  magical  nature,  their  shamanistic  power.  As 
the  centuries  passed,  and  the  conquest  had  come  to  an  end,  these 
hymns  grew  to  have  an  ever  enlarging  significance,  as  embody- 
ing the  religion  of  this  people.  Having  come  from  a  period  far 
in  the  past,  and  having  lost  much  of  their  meaning  for  the  new 
age,  the  hymns  required  explanation,  and  a  large  body  of  com- 
mentary grew  up  about  them.  This  is  what  is  known  as  the 
Brahmanas,  which  largely  added  to,  or  grew  out  from,  the 
Rig- Veda,  the  larger  and  in  some  respects  more  spiritual  and 
more  philosophical  phases  of  religious  expansion.  There  fol- 
lowed the  Upanishads,  the  epics,  and  a  great  number  of  other 
works,  in  which  the  successive  stages  of  the  Vedic  religion  grew 
into  that  of  Brahmanism  and  then  into  Hinduism.  No  brief 
statement  can  make  it  wholly  clear  how  and  why  these  phases 
of  development  succeeded  each  other;  and  the  manner  in  which 
they  expanded  out  of  the  primitive  animism  with  which  the 
Aryans  began.  Brahmanism  followed  Vedism  when  the  people 
had  settled  down  permanently  in  India,  became  adjusted  to  its 
tropical  climate,  especially  in  the  central  and  southern  regions. 
Hinduism  followed  the  advent  of  Buddhism  and  Jainism,  and 
the  ijew  adjustments  they  compelled  the  old  religion  to  make, 
and  as  resulting  from  the  efforts  for  the  expulsion  of  the 
former. 

[217] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

One  of  the  results  of  the  conquest  of  India  by  the  Aryans 
was  the  production  of  caste  as  a  rigid  system  of  social  and 
religious  distinctions.  The  prolonged  task  of  conquest  brought 
about  the  development  of  a  compact  body  of  warriors,  who  gave 
themselves  wholly  to  the  demands  of  that  occupation.  Since  the 
constant  presence  of  the  enemy  compelled  the  warrior  class  to 
be  alertly  on  their  guard  day  and  night,  ready  to  meet  attack 
at  any  moment,  and  ready  always  to  push  forward  their  con- 
quests, it  is  evident  they  could  have  no  other  occupation.  They 
were  obliged  to  depend  for  their  subsistence  on  a  cultivating 
class.  As  has  been  the  case  nearly  everywhere,  a  warrior  class 
despises  those  who  become  cultivators,  artisans,  and  are  given 
to  any  kind  of  mercantile  pursuits.  These  classes  were  not  only 
despised,  but  they  were  in  large  measure  excluded  from  the  in- 
terests which  were  those  of  the  warriors. 

At  this  stage  of  social  development  the  interests  of  religion, 
at  least  so  far  as  concerned  the  warrior  class,  were  in  their  own 
control.  In  time,  however,  it  became  necessary  that  the  hymns 
should  be  remembered,  recited,  used  for  magical  and  religious 
purposes.  Gradually  there  grew  up  a  priestly  class  devoted 
wholly  to  these  offices.  The  brahman,  as  the  priest  came  to  be 
called,  made  a  third  class,  and  one  who,  in  time,  came  to  regard 
himself  as  far  superior  to  the  other  classes.  With  the  conquest 
and  subjection  of  the  native  population,  who  were  much  darker 
than  the  Aryans,  there  appeared  a  fourth  or  servant  class.  Here 
we  have  the  four  original  castes  —  the  Brahmans,  the  Kshatriya, 
the  Vaisya,  and  the  Sudra,  —  the  priest,  the  warrior,  the  farmer 
and  merchant,  and  the  servant.  In  time  a  great  number  of 
other  castes  made  their  appearance,  as  these  four  were  amal- 
gamated, and  as  new  occupations  arose.  Nowhere  else  in  the 
world  have  such  rigid  and  exclusive  distinctions  been  made 
between  social  classes  as  in  India,  though  in  its  essentials  caste 

1218] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

is  to  be  found  widely  elsewhere.  The  distinction  of  caste  is  pri- 
marily social,  but  it  enters  deeply  into  every  phase  of  the  re- 
ligion of  India,  making  it  difficult,  if  not  impossible  at  present, 
to  secure  any  genuine  unity  of  the  people  in  the  acceptance  of 
one  comprehensive  faith. 

The  religion  which  grew  out  of  the  Vedas,  and  which  re- 
gards the  hymns  as  a  revelation,  is  known  as  Brahmanism. 
Many  are  the  gods  adored  or  worshipped  by  the  followers  of 
this  religion;  but  the  leading  characteristic  of  it  is  that  it  is 
chiefly  a  religion  of  ceremonies  and  observances.  This  state- 
ment may  be  made  of  practically  all  early  religions;  but  the 
Aryans  of  India  greatly  elaborated  their  ceremonials;  and  in 
the  ritualistic  books  the  most  detailed  accounts  of  them  may  be 
found.  Perhaps  the  leading  features  of  these  ceremonials  were 
those  connected  with  sacrifice.  These  were  of  a  magical  char- 
acter, and  were  regarded  as  more  potent  than  the  acts  of  the 
gods  themselves.  According  to  H.  Jacobi,  in  the  article  on  Brah- 
manism in  the  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics,  sacrifice 
"is  not  offered  to  a  god  with  the  view  of  propitiating  him  or 
obtaining  from  him  welfare  on  earth  or  bliss  in  heaven;  these 
rewards  are  directly  produced  by  the  sacrifice  itself,  i.  e.  through 
the  correct  performance  of  complicated  and  interconnected 
ceremonies  which  constitute  the  sacrifice,  and  which  are  more  of 
the  nature  of  magic  than  of  worship.  Though  in  each  sacrifice 
certain  gods  are  invoked  and  receive  offerings,  the  gods  them- 
selves are  but  instrumental  in  bringing  about  the  sacrifice  or 
in  completing  the  course  of  mystical  ceremonies  composing  it. 
Sacrifice  is  regarded  as  possessing  a  mystical  potency,  superior 
even  to  the  gods,  who  it  is  sometimes  stated,  attained  to  their 
divine  rank  by  means  of  sacrifice. " 

This  manner  of  regarding  sacrifice,  and  of  its  control  by 
the  priest,  places  the  brahman  in  a  position  superior  to  that 

[219] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION  OF  KELIGION 

even  of  the  gods  themselves.  By  means  of  the  mystic  potency 
of  the  sacrifice,  he  controls  the  gods,  and  compels  them  to 
serve  his  purpose.  It  naturally  follows,  therefore,  that  the 
brahman  became  the  leader  in  religion,  and  that  Brahmanism 
shaped  itself  around  this  dominating  influence  of  the  priest. 
The  tropical  temperature  of  India,  its  enervating  climate,  the 
absence  of  facilities  of  rapid  transportation,  led  to  the  develop- 
ment of  industrial  and  political  conditions  which  bred  a  spirit 
of  peace  and  stagnation.  The  peninsula  was  divided  into  many 
small  states,  and  a  very  large  aboriginal  population  remained 
throughout  the  land,  against  which  the  Aryans  felt  compelled 
constantly  to  protect  themselves.  Under  these  circumstances 
asceticism  grew  into  great  proportions,  and  many  men  went  away 
into  the  wilderness  to  think  of  god  and  to  develop  their  spiritual 
powers.  All  of  these  conditions  gave  the  brahman  a  dominating 
position  in  the  life  of  the  Aryan  people,  and  shaped  in  large 
degree  the  nature  of  the  religion  which  came  to  be  known  as 
Brahmanism.  This  was  the  religion  of  a  people  who  were  chiefly 
concerned  with  spiritual  interests,  and  with  those  things  which 
would  bring  them  into  harmony  with  the  gods. 

When  the  aborigines  had  been  completely  subdued,  and 
the  Aryans  settled  down  to  the  life  of  farmers,  artisans,  and 
herders,  they  gave  much  of  their  time  to  speculation;  and  this 
was  especially  true  of  the  ascetics.  Many  forms  of  philosophy 
were  developed,  no  less  than  six  leading  systems  being  produced. 
These  ranged  all  the  way  from  the  most  extreme  idealism  to 
materialism.  The  nature  of  being,-  the  qualities  of  the  soul, 
the  relations  of  man  to  the  spiritual  world,  engaged  the  atten- 
tion of  these  thinkers.  Practically  all  modern  forms  of  philo- 
sophy were  anticipated  by  them,  and  with  great  elaborateness 
and  subtlety.  Some  of  the  systems  regarded  mind  or  spirit  as  the 
only  reality,  others  found  it  in  matter.  Perhaps  the  favorite 

[220] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF  RELIGION 

idea  was  that  of  one  Supreme  Self,  of  which  all  individual  selves 
are  phases  or  manifestations.  This  conception  is  worked  out 
in  great  detail,  requiring  the  closest  attention  to  follow  the 
lofty  but  intricate  speculations  which  gave  it  meaning  to  those 
who  accepted  it. 

Justice  would  not  be  done  to  the  Aryans  of  India,  however, 
if  we  regarded  them  as  mere  dreamers  and  ascetics.  In  fact 
they  produced  a  comprehensive  body  of  customs,  and  developed 
to  the  fullest  extent  a  code  of  family  and  community  law.  In 
the  Code  of  Manu,  compiled  at  about  the  beginning  of  our  era, 
we  find  a  detailed  system  of  family  conduct,  connected  with  a 
high  morality,  but  mixed  with  many  crudities  and  superstitions, 
as  they  seem  to  us.  This  body  of  customs  and  laws,  dealing 
with  the  duties  of  householders,  heads  of  families,  students, 
rulers;  and,  in  fact,  all  the  members  of  the  community,  gives 
a  remarkable  picture  of  the  life  of  this  people  in  the  several 
centuries  after  the  permanent  settlement  of  the  Aryans.  More 
elaborate  works  on  law,  such  as  the  Yajnavalkya,  Narada,  Mit- 
acshara,  were  also  written  dealing  more  comprehensively  with 
the  duties  of  rulers,  and  with  the  management  of  states;  but 
not  neglecting  family  and  household  affairs.  In  many  respects 
these  works  form  the  earliest  treatment  of  the  principles  of 
jurisprudence ;  but  always  in  connection  with  religion,  and  with 
the  obligations  owed  to  the  gods.  All  students  of  jurisprudence 
feel  obliged  to  go  back  to  these  books  in  order  to  secure  an 
intimate  knowledge  on  which  the  basic  principles  of  that  science 
historically  rest.  Here  was  the  beginning  of  Roman,  as  of  all 
later,  law  on  a  comprehensive  basis. 

The  struggles  of  Brahmanism  with  Buddhism,  from  the 
sixth  century  B.  C.  onward  for  several  centuries,  led  to  the 
development  of  Hinduism,  which  varied  greatly  from  Brah- 
manism, and  in  many  particulars.  The  gods  were  different,  and 

[221] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OP  RELIGION 

the  rituals  were  greatly  modified.  Essentially,  however,  the 
religion  of  India  remained  the  same,  even  if  new  gods  came 
into  existence.  To  the  Hindu  dharma  is  of  chief  importance, 
and  is  that  body  of  customs,  laws,  institutions,  rites,  and  festi- 
vals which  shape  the  conduct  of  the  Hindu.  After  caste,  the 
most  distinguishing  feature  of  Hinduism  is  the  belief  in  trans- 
migration or  metempsychosis.  The  origin  of  this  conception 
may  be  found  in  the  recognition  by  many  primitive  peoples, 
that  the  child  resembles  its  parents  and  others  of  the  members 
of  its  family.  In  Australia,  west  Africa,  and  in  other  regions, 
heredity  means  the  return  of  the  soul  of  the  dead  to  inhabit  a 
new  body.  The  Aryans  of  India  developed  this  conception  into 
a  systematic  interpretation  of  the  nature  of  the  soul,  and  that 
which  determines  its  future  destiny.  According  to  the  deeds 
of  the  individual  was  the  nature  of  the  life  he  lived  hereafter, 
whether  he  returned  in  an  animal,  a  bad  man,  a  woman,  or  in 
some  state  superior  to  that  of  man.  Hinduism  came  to  hold  to 
the  doctrine  that  the  soul  passes  through  an  eternal  round  of 
existences,  which  was  described  under  the  symbol  of  a  wheel, 
every  point  of  the  circumference  of  which  returns  again  and 
again  to  .the  same  position.  It  was  against  this  theory  of  a  con- 
tinuous succession  of  existences  that  Buddha  chiefly  directed 
his  religion,  and  sought  for  a  means  by  which  the  wheel  might 
be  abandoned,  and  the  succession  of  lives  brought  to  an  end. 

Hinduism  has  become  in  some  measure  a  missionary  reli- 
gion, is  drawing  into  its  fold  many  of  the  aboriginal  tribes, 
thus  giving  them  a  higher  social  position,  as  it  invaded  Indo- 
nesia centuries  ago  and  made  its  presence  greatly  felt. 

VIII 

The  most  highly  developed,  the  most  intellectual,  and  the 
most  artistic  of  the  Aryan  religions,  was  that  of  Greece.  We 

[222] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF  RELIGION 

cannot  doubt  that  it  began  in  animism,  and  that  it  passed 
through  stages  of  magic,  fetishism,  and  possibly  totemism.  We 
know  that  it  worshipped  animals,  and  many  of  its  gods  were 
of  a  plant  or  animal  origin,  and  that  some  of  them,  from  time 
to  time,  passed  into  animal  forms.  In  the  animistic  manner, 
it  found  its  higher  gods  in  the  great  powers  of  nature ;  and  it 
had  regard  to  a  great  world  of  spirits  and  daemons.  In  the 
early  periods  the  religion  of  the  Greeks  was  mainly  ritualistic, 
and  found  expression  largely  in  ceremonials,  festivals,  and 
sacrifices. 

The  first  phases  of  the  Greek,  as  of  most  if  not  all  other 
religions,  circles  around  the  demand  for  the  productiveness  of 
the  earth  and  of  those  plants  and  animals  which  afford  food. 
To  secure  the  products  of  fertility  the  first  rituals  appear  to 
have  been  developed.  Since  the  earth  was  cultivated  by 
women,  perhaps  wholly  in  the  beginnings  of  agriculture,  these 
rituals  were  theirs,  and  such  as  they  found  conducive  to  the 
results  desired.  The  Thesmophoria  and  other  rites  were  of 
this  nature,  all  of  which  had  a  basis  in  the  conditions  of  agri- 
culture. This  phase  of  early  religion  gave  origin  to  the  great 
sowing  and  harvest  festivals,  and  to  the  personification  of  the 
forces  expressing  themselves  in  the  growth  of  plants.  To  in- 
voke the  nature-powers,  which  would  fertilize  the  seed  placed 
in  the  earth,  that  would  bring  the  necessary  rains  to  promote 
the  growth  of  the  plants,  and  that  would  bring  forth  abundant 
harvests  to  the  farmer  —  these  were  the  phases  of  the  early 
religion  which  seemed  most  deeply  to  impress  the  people. 
These  demands  led  to  the  greatest  of  all  the  rituals,  that  con- 
nected with  the  Mysteries  enacted  at  Eleusis.  The  great  pro- 
ductive forces,  in  their  two  phases  of  the  growing  plants  in 
spring,  and  the  maturing  plants  before  the  time  of  harvest  or 

[223] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF  RELIGION 

at  that  period,  personified  in  Persephone  or  Cora  and  Demeter, 
formed  the  most  striking  of  the  Greek  myths. 

The  phase  of  the  Greek  mythology  and  religion  which  usually 
claims  attention  is  that  found  in  the  great  pantheon  of  which 
Zeus  was  the  head.  We  may  perhaps  feel  convinced  that  the 
agricultural  rituals  represent  a  matriarchal  period  in  the  in- 
dustrial and  social  development  of  the  Greek  peoples;  but  it 
seems  most  probable  that  the  gods  on  Olympus  interpret  or  re- 
sult from  the  later  patriarchal  social  growth.  The  Olympii 
pantheon  or  system  of  gods  does  reflect  the  conditions  of 
people  who  accept  the  father  as  the  head  of  the  family,  and  tin 
king  as  an  autocrat  in  the  state.  Olympus  is  a  family,  a  grou] 
of  related  and  intermarried  gods,  all  under  the  rule  of  th( 
dictator  Zeus,  who  is  himself  subject  to  that  fundamental 
of  nemesis  which  is  superior  to  all  gods,  because  impersonj 
and  eternal.  Even  the  supreme  god  must  bow  to  this  principle 
of  fate  or  of  fundamental  necessity,  that  is,  of  the  law  whi< 
underlies  and  gives  meaning  to  all  existence. 

The  Greek  race  was  never  coordinated  into  a  central  state, 
but  remained  largely  under  the  conditions  determined  by  thei] 
tribal  history,  and  were  grouped  into  city-states,  with  loose  con- 
federacies of  these  from  time  to  time.    This  failure  to  rea< 
any  higher  phase  of  nationality  may  account,  in  no  inconsidei 
able  measure,  for  the  failure  of  the  people  as  a  whole  to  read 
the  monotheistic  stage  of  religious  evolution.    Though  the  g< 
in  all  the  communities  were  much  the  same,  there  was  no  reli- 
gious centrality,  because  there  was  no  federation  of  the  citie 
into  one  effective  nation  in  its  political  institutions.     Whei 
Sparta  fought  its  long  war  against  Athens,  and  conquered, 
chance  for  a  unity  of  the  many  cities  came  to  an  end;  an< 
with  this  failure  came  the  last  Greek  opportunity  for  a  perf ec1 
theism.    The  philosophers  could  reason  their  way  to  a  unitai 

[224] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION  OF  KELIGION 

conception  of  nature  and  life,  but  in  the  absence  of  a  national 
organization  this  became  impossible  for  the  great  mass  of  the 
people. 

In  the  writings  of  Plato  and  Aristotle  the  philosophical 
thinking  of  the  ancient  world  reached  its  highest  standards. 
In  the  later  centuries,  when  the  Greek  states  had  lost  their 
autonomy,  and  had  come  under  the  rule  of  the  Roman  empire, 
the  teachings  of  these  men  came  to  have  a  great  influence; 
but  it  was  under  another  than  the  Greek  religion  that  this  ex- 
tension of  larger  ideas  found  acceptance.  The  unification  of 
the  world  about  the  Mediterranean,  brought  about  by  Roman 
conquest,  prepared  for  the  teachings  of  the  neo-Platonists,  the 
Stoics,  and  other  broadening  movements  of  thought. 

In  connection  with  these  movements  it  is  interesting  to 
note  the  remarkable  revival  of  the  earlier  phases  of  religion 
which  appeared  under  the  influences  of  Macedonian  and  Roman 
political  developments.  The  Olympian  religion  was  distinctly 
masculine,  patriarchal,  autocratic,  and  intellectualist.  With 
the  political  changes  there  came  a  despair  of  the  world  as  it 
then  existed,  a  call  for  some  interpretation  of  life  that  would 
satisfy  the  emotional  nature,  and  that  would  unify  human 
interests  in  the  spirit  of  brotherhood.  These  results  could  not 
be  attained  by  means  of  the  state  or  with  the  aid  of  the 
Olympian  religion.  There  followed  a  great  revival  of  the  old 
agricultural  religions,  the  religions  connected  with  the  inter- 
ests of  women  as  to  their  origin.  This  may  account  for  the 
remarkable  increase  of  interest  in  the  Eleusinian  Mysteries, 
and  in  other  cults  bringing  considerable  bodies  of  persons  into 
fellowship  with  each  other.  Even  more  than  this,  perhaps,  was 
the  demand  for  some  assurance  in  regard  to  the  future  of  the 
soul.  The  mysteries,  in  a  series  of  rituals,  dramatic  presenta- 
tions, and  elaborate  initiations,  gave  the  required  faith  in  re- 

[225] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF  RELIGION 

gard  to  the  destiny  which  the  soul  might  expect.  At  Eleusis 
men  and  women  alike  were  received  into  the  fellowship,  as 
were  slaves  and  foreigners.  What  could  not  be  secured  by 
means  of  the  state,  what  the  Olympian  religion  failed  to  give, 
was  brought  to  the  people  in  a  manner  the  most  impressive  and 
convincing  —  to  them. 

The  phase  of  Greek  religion,  as  distinct  from  philosophy, 
which  has  most  impressed  the  modern  world  is  that  which 
found  expression  in  art,  including  the  drama  and  poetry.  For 
many  years  it  was  assumed  that  Hesiod  and  Homer  created 
the  religion  they  describe,  but  it  is  not  in  their  writings  that 
we  find  the  best  interpretations  of  what  religion  was  to  the 
Greek  people.  This  may  be  found  in  the  dramas  of  Aeschylus, 
Sophocles  and  Euripides,  and  in  various  of  the  minor  poets 
and  later  writers.  The  great  creations  embodied  in  the  myths 
find  expression  in  these  dramas  in  a  manner  which  brings  the 
religion  home  to  us  as  to  what  the  Greek  believed,  how  he  felt, 
and  what  were  the  motives  controlling  his  life.  This  cosmic 
order  of  the  gods  and  heroes,  of  godlike-men  and  of  manlike- 
gods,  with  their  world  controlled  by  supreme  principles  of 
moral  order,  justice,  friendship  and  fellowship,  is  one  under- 
stood by  the  dramatists,  as  it  was  not  understood  and  inter- 
preted by  the  philosophers. 

In  the  plays  we  see  the  great  traditions,  which  had  grown 
into  shape  through  many  centuries,  receiving  a  presentation 
that  was  masterful  and  convincing  to  the  hearers  as  to  the 
true  principles  of  life  and  conduct.  These  plays  brought  out 
a  supreme  religious  expression,  presented  in  the  most  im- 
pressive manner,  and  with  an  interpretation  of  the  doings  of 
the  heroes  and  gods  who  determined  the  ethical  conduct  of 
men  and  states. 

[226] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

The  other  phase  of  the  presentation  of  the  Greek  religion, 
that  of  the  artistic,  supremely  presented  by  the  architect  and 
the  sculptor,  brought  directly  before  every  eye  and  mind  the 
real  nature  of  the  gods  and  the  heroes.  The  best  work  in  these 
directions  of  Egypt,  India,  and  Babylonia  was  crude  compared 
with  that  of  Greece.  Here  was  perfection  of  harmony  and 
beauty.  Zeus  here  stood  forth  in  all  his  majesty  as  the  thund- 
erer  and  as  the  law-giver.  Apollo  reached  the  very  height  of 
manly  beauty  and  dignity.  Aphrodite  gave  the  ideal  of  womanly 
beauty,  as  Hera  did  that  of  motherly  care  and  fidelity,  and 
Artemis  that  of  one  who  loved  the  free  and  the  wild. 

The  religion  of  the  Greek  in  the  early  period  largely  found 
expression  in  dances,  festivals,  rituals,  music  and  dramatic 
presentations;  but  that  of  the  later  time  was  embodied  in 
architecture,  the  drama,  and  sculpture.  In  the  theatre,  on  the 
buildings  which  came  to  greatly  adorn  a  city  like  Athens,  might 
be  daily  heard  or  seen  the  best  interpretations  of  the  religion 
of  the  better  portion  of  the  people.  The  old  dances,  rites,  and 
festivals  had  not  been  abandoned;  but  in  the  city  the  gods 
were  brought  very  close  to  the  lives  of  the  people,  and  made 
to  appear  as  real  beings. 

Yet,  with  the  changing  times,  loss  of  political  autonomy, 
failure  of  the  spreading  life  of  the  Greek  people  into  new 
colonies,  there  came  a  questioning  of  the  old  beliefs  and  the 
old  gods.  Philosophy  satisfied  some,  tradition  pleased  many 
more;  but  there  was  a  desire  for  new  gods,  and  these  were 
brought  from  many  lands.  In  this  manner  a  great  syncretist 
movement  was  developing,  with  increasing  acquaintance  with 
the  civilizations  of  Babylonia,  Syria,  Phoenicia,  Egypt,  Ana- 
tolia and  Rome.  The  Greeks  were  an  alert-minded  people,  free 
from  the  conceit  that  nothing  more  was  to  be  heard  or  known ; 
and  they  were  constantly  widening  the  borders  of  their  faith, 

[227] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

the  depth  of  their  philosophical  thinking.  Here  in  this  land 
began  the  work  of  science,  and  here  for  the  first  time  arose  the 
spirit  of  free  inquiry  into  the  causes  of  the  changing  pheno- 
mena of  nature,  with  a  search  for  underlying  and  eternal 
principles,  capable  of  an  interpretation  which  would  satisfy 
the  inquiring  spirit  of  men. 


[228] 


CHAPTER  VI 

International  Religion 

IN  the  international  religion  two  factors  are  of  very  con- 
siderable importance,  the  commingling  of  religious  ten- 
dencies and  ideas  from  various  national  sources,  and  the  in- 
fluence of  individual  originators.  The  first  of  these  develop- 
ments is  probably  much  the  greater  of  the  two,  though  it 
usually  receives  but  a  small  degree  of  recognition.  When  we 
give  attention  to  the  fact  that  there  can  be  no  international 
religion  until  the  preceding  stages  of  tribal,  feudal  and  na- 
tional developments  have  been  passed  through,  though  not  all 
of  them  may  be  absolutely  essential,  it  will  be  recognized  that 
this  phase  in  the  history  of  religious  evolution  carries  with  it 
great  significance. 

Until  national  governments  have  definitely  made  their  ap- 
pearance, and  have  gained  a  stable  and  independent  form  of 
organization,  it  is  impossible  that  there  should  be  anything  ap- 
proaching internationalism,  either  for  the  state  or  for  religion. 
The  king  precedes  the  god  in  any  really  monotheistic  sense  of 
the  word.  Recognizing  the  fundamental  law  of  all  religious 
history,  that  the  world  of  spirits  and  of  the  supernatural  is  a 
reflection  of  the  world  of  social  and  political  and  industrial 
activities  on  the  part  of  man,  it  follows  that  there  can  be  no 
unitary  conception  of  the  other  world  and  of  god  until  there 
has  been  developed  a  state  in  which  there  is  one  law  and  one 
ruler.  In  the  ages  when  the  state  is  growing  to  have  a  definite 

[229] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION   OF   KELIGION 

and  wide-reaching  influence  on  human  affairs,  it  is  for  the  first 
time  possible  to  conceive  of  divinity  as  having  a  personal  and  a 
thoroughly  law-giving  power. 


When  the  state  had  come  into  existence,  and  there  had 
begun  the  process  of  the  federation  of  states  or  when  they  had 
begun  to  have  frequent  intercourse  with  each  other  in  the  inter- 
ests of  commerce,  exchange  of  ideas  and  customs,  or  when 
conquest  had  brought  scattered  communities  under  one  wide- 
reaching  national  spirit,  then  began  the  process  of  the  amalga- 
mation of  religious  rites,  customs,  and  institutions.  Perhaps 
the  most  distinctive  phase  of  this  process  was  that  of  the 
growth  on  the  part  of  the  votaries  of  a  religion  of  a  desire  to 
make  their  rites  and  beliefs  known  for  the  good  of  the  peoples 
of  other  states  than  their  own,  even  when  conquest  had  not 
taken  place.  In  this  way  the  religion  of  China  spread  to  Corea 
and  Japan  along  with  its  laws  and  its  institutions.  It  was  not 
in  a  missionary  spirit  that  this  process  was  brought  about  nor 
was  it  with  any  idea  that  the  religion  of  itself  had  a  special 
and  saving  merit ;  but  as  a  part  of  the  Chinese  culture,  without 
which  the  educational  methods  and  the  philosophical  principles 
could  not  be  conveyed  to  another  people.  Religion  and  culture 
in  this  instance  were  one  and  the  same. 

In  the  same  manner,  and  in  the  same  spirit,  the  religion 
of  the  Aryans  in  India  spread  to  the  eastward,  and  pervaded 
the  whole  of  Indonesia,  at  least  in  all  those  regions  where  there 
was  a  sufficient  degree  of  enlightenment  to  appreciate  it.  In 
this  instance,  it  was  not  so  much  conquest  as  commercial  pene- 
tration, which  served  to  propagate  Brahmanism  in  other  lands. 

[230] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF  RELIGION 

In  much  the  same  manner  Zoroastrianism  was  diffused  west- 
ward, and  came  in  time  to  penetrate  the  Roman  empire  to 
some  extent.  Here  the  process  was  an  intellectual  one,  rather 
than  one  of  conquest  or  commercial  activities. 

We  cannot  study  any  of  the  more  advanced  regions  of  the 
ancient  world  without  coming  upon  the  fact  that,  slow  as  were 
the  methods  of  transportation,  and  few  as  were  the  number 
of  travellers,  yet  there  was  going  on  a  constant  process  of  com- 
munication from  one  people  to  another.  The  recent  explora- 
tions in  western  China  indicate  that  the  people  of  that  region 
were  receiving  one  or  another  influence  from  as  far  west  as 
Greece,  and  no  doubt  Chinese  ideas  and  customs  were  in  some 
measure  reaching  into  western  lands.  This  was  certainly  the 
case  so  far  as  concerned  Persia,  with  its  deification  of  fire, 
star-worship,  dualism,  and  its  emphasis  on  what  became  in 
the  west  the  Mithraic  cult.  To  some  extent,  also,  the  teach- 
ings of  Buddhism  penetrated  into  western  lands;  and  it  has 
often  been  suggested  that  the  birth-tales  told  about  Gautama 
were  influential  in  developing  those  connecting  themselves 
with  the  birth  of  Jesus,  especially  in  the  apochraphal  writings. 

2 

Perhaps  no  more  significant  instance  of  this  influence  of 
one  civilization  and  religion  on  another  is  to  be  found  than  in 
that  of  the  Jews.  From  the  very  beginning  of  their  career, 
even  as  a  tribal  people,  they  were  in  close  touch  with  the  sur- 
rounding nations.  The  situation  of  their  country  not  only 
brought  them  into  intimate  relations  with  the  tribes  and  na- 
tions inhabiting  the  sea-coast,  the  mountain  regions  eastward 
and  northward;  and  the  desert  regions  southward  and  west- 
ward; but  also  the  great  nations  which  passed  through  their 

[231] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

country  or  along  its  borders  on  their  way  to  other  regions. 
The  Egyptians,  Babylonians,  Syrians,  Hittites,  and  later  on, 
the  Greeks  and  Romans,  penetrated  their  country  as  conquerers 
or  settlers. 

The  diffusion  of  the  Jews  to  Babylonia,  Egypt,  and  into 
various  parts  of  the  Roman  empire,  mark  different  stages  of  their 
career.  After  the  time  of  Alexander  the  Jews  became  in  large 
numbers  inhabitants  of  the  city  in  Egypt  built  by  him  and 
which  was  given  his  name.  Here  was  in  many  respects  the 
chief  center  of  Jewish  culture  and  influence;  and,  soon  after 
the  beginnings  of  Christianity,  the  Jews  were  to  be  found  in 
Rome  in  considerable  numbers.  Wherever  they  penetrated 
they  had  an  influence  on  religion,  though  probably  not  of  any 
great  extent.  Far  more  important  is  the  fact,  that  this  con- 
tact with  other  peoples  marked  important  and  considerable 
changes  in  the  religion  of  the  Hebrew  people.  From  the  Baby- 
lonians they  took  the  origin  myths  on  which  their  religion  was 
based,  from  the  Persians  their  dualism,  and  from  the  contact 
with  the  Greeks  no  little  portion  of  their  later  and  more  pro- 
gressive culture  and  religion. 

The  period  when  Buddhism,  Christianity,  and  Moham- 
medanism were  originating  was  one  of  the  penetration  of  cul- 
ture by  culture,  and  of  the  wide  diffusion  of  social  contacts 
throughout  the  ancient  world.  Had  it  not  been  for  this  grow- 
ing intimacy  of  peoples,  the  increasing  diffusion  of  the  most 
fundamental  phases  of  their  religious  and  cultural  life,  no 
new  religions  would  have  come  into  existence.  F.  B.  Jevons, 
in  his  Introduction  to  the  History  of  Religion,  has  suggested 
that  a  very  considerable  change  in  religious  development  took 
place  at  this  period.  Before  this  status  or  birth  determined 
the  religion  of  a  person,  for  he  accepted  without  choice  the 
tribal  or  the  national  faith  of  his  community.  At  this  period, 

[232] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

Jevons  remarks,  in  his  twenty-third  chapter:  "we  find  in  the 
ancient  world  new  rites  and  cults  arising  which  differ  from  all 
previous  ones,  first  in  that  they  were  open  to  all  men,  and  next 
in  that  membership  was  voluntary  and  spontaneous.  They  were 
not  always  or  necessarily  new  religions,  for  in  them  the  old 
gods  of  the  nation  might  still  be  worshipped,  though  with  new 
rites.  They  can  scarcely  be  called  sects  even,  for  their  mem- 
bers were  not  required  to  give  up  the  ordinary  hereditary  wor- 
ship of  the  state  to  which  they  belonged.  But  the  idea  was 
now  for  the  first  time  expressed  in  action  that  a  man  could  be- 
long to  a  religious  community  which  was  distinct  from  the 
state.  The  possibility  of  choice  between  the  worship  to  which 
he  was  born  and  another  was  now  before  him." 

This  choice  as  between  one  and  another  religion  was  di- 
rectly the  result  of  the  diffusion  of  religions  through  contact 
of  one  people  with  another,  and  through  the  origin  of  new 
religions,  and  gods  not  hitherto  known.  Until  such  changes 
had  come  about  there  was  no  opportunity  for  choice,  for  there 
was  but  one  religion,  that  of  the  tribe  or  that  of  the  nation. 
More  than  one  religion  within  a  state  meant  that  it  should 
make  no  choice  between  them,  that  it  should  accept  them  all 
as  of  equal  importance,  or  that  it  should  prefer  one  to  the 
others,  and  give  that  its  special  protection.  In  either  event 
the  choice  was  open  for  the  first  time  to  the  individual  to  make 
his  own  preference  count  as  regards  the  form  of  worship  to 
which  he  should  give  his  adhesion. 


3 

In  the  Roman  empire  we  well  know  that  many  religions 
found  acceptance.  The  religions  of  all  the  Mediterranean  coun- 
tries found  reception  there.  Mithraism  was  given  wide  dif- 

[233] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION   OF  KELIGION 

fusion,  though  it  originated  in  Persia.  Isis  was  regarded  with 
a  devotion  rarely  given  to  any  other  god.  The  Jewish  faith 
won  the  acceptance  of  a  few  of  the  more  ethically  inclined 
men  of  the  philosophical  type,  and  who  were  disposed  to  re- 
ceive a  distinctly  monotheistic  religion. 

There  spread  through  all  nations  at  this  time  a  form  of 
religion  sanctioned  by  the  social  needs  of  artisans  of  all  classes. 
The  clan  and  tribal  forms  of  religion  had  largely  disappeared, 
and  their  place  was  taken  by  guild  or  community  cults.  Not 
ties  of  blood  held  these  together,  but  occupations  of  craftsmen, 
who  felt  the  need  of  associating  themselves  in  a  fraternity  for 
the  protection  of  their  common  interests.  Each  guild  was  a 
church  or  religious  association,  as  well  as  an  artisan  union  for 
the  securing  of  whatever  best  concerned  the  interests  of  the 
individuals  belonging  to  it,  and  of  the  fraternity  as  a  corpora- 
tion. Such  communities  are  widely  to  be  found  in  China, 
India,  Greece,  and  Rome;  and  they  probably  existed  in  every 
ancient  nation.  Each  guild  had  its  own  god,  its  own  form  of 
worship,  and  its  own  cult. 

Of  a  similar  nature,  in  many  respects,  were  many  develop- 
ing new  forms  of  religion  widely  found  in  all  the  ancient  states. 
The  highest  type  of  this  kind  of  religion  was  to  be  found  in 
the  Mysteries  of  Eleusis  and  the  cult  developing  around  Dio- 
nysus. The  state  protected  these  cults,  and  to  some  extent 
they  were  of  a  national  character.  But  at  the  heart  of  them, 
at  least  in  their  more  advanced  forms,  despite  their  crude 
origin,  they  became  international.  The  worshipper  was  ini- 
tiated, and  was  not  born,  into  these  religions.  They  had  most 
solemn  rites,  and  they  sought  to  give  the  worshipper  admission 
to  a  more  spiritual  conception  of  the  world,  and  to  insure  en- 
trance to  a  diviner  state  beyond  death.  Such  were  some  of 
the  consequences  of  the  growth  of  internationalism  in  the  an- 

[234] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF  RELIGION 

cient  world,  and  of  the  wide  diffusion  of  cultural  and  religious 
ideas. 

Throughout  the  whole  Mediterranean  region,  probably  ex- 
tending as  far  east  as  Persia,  and  as  far  west  as  Gaul  and  Iberia, 
it  may  be  said  that  in  no  inconsiderable  degree  there  was  but 
one  religion.  Over  all  this  vast  territory  the  same  beliefs  and 
rituals  were  being  diffused,  and  there  was  a  constant  process 
of  intercommunication.  This  at  least  may  be  said,  that  all  the 
nations  of  this  region,  and  all  their  religions,  were  influencing 
each  other,  and  there  was  a  process  of  amalgamation  going 
forward  for  several  centuries.  This  syncretist  process  finally 
culminated  in  the  origin  and  diffusion  of  Christianity.  In  the 
very  nature  of  this  revolution  in  Hebraism,  syncretism  was  at 
work,  result  of  the  contact  of  religions  and  cultures.  Had  this 
process  not  been  in  active  evolution  Christianity  would  not 
have  come  into  existence.  At  first  a  development  from  Juda- 
ism, it  rapidly  took  on  a  much  wider  phase,  and  unified  all  the 
faiths  of  the  Mediterranean  region. 


One  other  phase  of  religious  evolution  must  be  taken  into 
consideration  in  connection  with  a  study  of  the  international 
religions.  Without  doubt  all  advanced  religions  have  owed 
much  to  individuals  of  genius,  and  to  those  who  have  been 
known  as  prophets  and  founders.  This  phase  of  religious 
evolution  has  been  undoubtedly  too  greatly  emphasized,  owing 
to  the  theory  that  all  religions  result  from  the  inspiration  of 
these  men  directly  from  God.  What  is  the  true  nature  of 
genius  is  not  usually  discussed  in  this  connection,  nor  is  it 
sought  to  discover  the  exact  character  of  the  inspiration  and 
revelation  in  which  the  developed  religions  have  originated. 

[235] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF  RELIGION 

Genius  appears  to  be  a  heightening  of  the  emotional  and 
mental  powers,  and  a  concentration  of  them  in  some  one  or 
more  directions.  Most  men  of  genius  focus  their  gifts  on  some 
special  faculty,  and  are  often  lacking  in  most  or  all  other  di- 
rections. The  man  of  religious  genius  is  rarely  broad-minded 
and  catholic  in  his  ideas.  If  he  is  strong  in  one  direction,  he  is 
weak  in  all  others.  Such  men  appear  to  concentrate  a  strong 
personality  into  a  single  channel  of  interest  and  expression. 
More  often  than  otherwise,  they  know  nothing  outside  religion ; 
and  care  not  for  science,  art,  law,  or  culture.  They  live  with 
God,  abide  in  an  ideal  realm,  are  ascetics  or  given  to  miracles. 
In  large  degree  they  are  quite  incapable  of  estimating  wisely 
and  justly  their  own  teachings  or  of  criticizing  them  from  the 
basis  of  a  large  knowledge  of  other  spiritual  ideas  or  beliefs. 
Therefore,  they  are  fanatics,  bigots,  dogmatists,  and  greatly 
credulous  with  regard  to  all  that  is  supernatural.  In  fact,  they 
are  rarely  able  to  distinguish  clearly  between  what  is  natural 
and  what  is  supernatural,  subjective  and  objective.  Their  own 
emotions,  aspirations,  visions,  even  their  dreams,  they  regard 
as  objective  phases  of  what  takes  place  in  the  world  of  spirits. 

Without  doubt  some  men  and  women  live  in  a  world  of 
spiritual  realities,  penetrate  to  the  abodes  of  the  spirits  and 
the  gods  —  so  it  seems  to  them.  The  common  world,  the  world 
of  sense  impressions,  and  of  objective  realities,  is  to  these 
persons  far  from  being  the  world  of  spiritual  beings  and  es- 
sential truths.  And  it  is  to  these  persons,  as  William  James 
has  abundantly  shown  in  his  Varieties  of  Religious  Exper- 
ience, that  religion  owes  its  force,  reality,  and  assurance. 
There  is  always  to  be  recognized  in  regard  to  such  persons, 
however,  that  they  are  never  quite  normal  in  the  wider  human 
sense.  They  belong,  in  no  small  measure,  to  a  world  apart; 

[236] 


THE    SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OP   EELIGION 

and  form  a  class  by  themselves.  Reassurances  in  regard  to 
religion  come  from  these  persons,  who  keep  alive  the  old  be- 
liefs, and  kindle  new  ones  at  the  torch  of  this  inspiration  of 
theirs. 

We  owe  much  to  genius  in  all  its  forms  —  artistic,  moral, 
scientific.  It  penetrates  through  the  old  truths  and  gives  them 
fresher  meanings.  It  quickens  thought,  formulates  new 
truths,  brings  to  light  fresh  discoveries,  and  makes  inventions 
of  great  practical  benefit.  Something  daring,  courageous, 
audacious,  rebellious  is  to  be  found  in  all  true  genius,  that  is, 
the  capacity  for  breaking  away  from  old  leading-strings,  for 
facing  realities  and  not  conventions.  Most  men  repeat  what 
they  have  been  taught;  but  genius  penetrates  a  step  or  two 
beyond  this,  and  finds  new  meanings  under  what  has  been  in- 
herited. 

As  has  already  been  said,  religion  is  of  all  forms  of  life 
and  thought  the  most  conservative,  the  least  able  to  break 
out  new  paths,  and  to  penetrate  far  into  the  wilderness  beyond 
the  village  or  the  city.  Were  it  not  for  the  fanatic,  the  man 
of  an  intensely  egoistical  thought,  who  can  see  but  from  one 
angle  at  a  time,  there  would  be  no  religions,  at  least  in  the 
earlier  ages  of  civilization.  Therefore,  we  find  that  all  new 
religions  of  the  higher  type  begin  with  such  men,  and  grow 
out  of  one  of  the  old  religions.  No  religion  ever  arises  without 
such  connection  with  the  past,  whatever  the  genius  of  its 
founder  or  whatever  the  claims  put  forth  in  regard  to  his 
inspiration  or  his  divinity.  Whatever  may  have  been  claimed 
for  revelation  in  regard  to  any  or  all  religions,  the  fact  re- 
mains that  religion  everywhere  is  the  result  of  evolutionary 
processes,  that  it  has  its  basis  in  the  past,  and  that  it  cannot 
rise  higher  than  the  civilization  from  which  it  has  grown. 

[  237  ] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 


All  religions  have  claimed  to  be  revelations,  even  those  the 
rudest  and  the  most  primitive.  This  claim  is  fundamental  to 
the  very  nature  of  religion,  and  gives  no  superiority  to  one 
over  another.  From  the  earliest  times  we  find  it  claimed  that 
the  tribal  ritual  is  of  a  sacred  nature,  that  it  has  power  to  con- 
trol the  spirits,  and  that  it  must  not  be  in  the  least  degree  de- 
parted from  in  its  repetition.  If  even  the  slightest  mistake 
is  made,  if  its  words  are  not  given  in  their  proper  order,  or  if 
the  rite  itself  is  not  presented  in  the  orthodox,  that  is,  the 
prescribed  manner,  all  must  be  repeated  from  the  beginning. 
Here  we  have  the  beginnings  of  things  sacred,  and  of  even 
those  books  which  have  been  regarded  as  divine.  This  demand 
as  to  the  sacredness  of  religions,  —  its  rites,  ceremonials,  books, 
and  persons,  still  remains,  —  and  dominates  the  interpretation 
which  is  to  be  given  them. 

It  follows,  therefore,  that  religion  is  regarded  as  some- 
thing more  than  the  result  of  genius,  unless  we  accept  this 
word  in  its  original  meaning,  as  the  indwelling  in  the  mind 
of  a  spiritual  or  guardian  being  other  than  the  true  self.  Such 
claim  cannot  be  allowed,  and  we  must  insist  that  religion  must 
come  within  the  laws  of  mental  activity,  as  to  its  origin  and 
nature.  In  the  demand  that  we  shall  accept  it  as  com- 
municated from  some  other  world  than  our  own,  by  an  order 
of  beings  known  only  to  those  of  religious  genius,  we  find  what 
has  not  been  proven,  and  what  religious  history  does  not 

justify. 

The  reasons  for  this  conclusion  have  been  already  sug- 
gested, in  saying  that  religious  genius  is  of  the  same  nature 
as  other  forms  of  genius;  and  that  all  the  more  advanced  reli- 
gions have  their  roots  in  social  and  political  conditions,  that  is, 

[238] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF  RELIGION 

in  the  nature  and  needs  of  man.  Whatever  the  claim  made 
for  any  religion,  what  it  really  is  may  be  found  in  the  con- 
stitution of  man,  both  as  an  individual  and  in  his  social  nature. 
Most  of  the  claims  made  in  regard  to  revelation,  and  the  special 
nature  of  religion,  have  been  owing  to  neglect  to  study  the  con- 
ditions determining  the  social  and  correlated  activities  of  the 
groups  of  men  described  as  tribes,  and  as  feudal  or  national 
states.  Man  thinks  collectively  as  well  as  individually;  and 
this  collective  thinking  is  largely  accepted  as  of  a  sacred  or 
divine  nature.  In  this  collective  character  of  emotion  and 
thought  most  of  the  sacredness  lies.  Beyond  it  most  of  the 
claims  made  are  exaggerated  or  result  from  a  failure  to  re- 
cognize the  true  nature  of  human  mentality. 


If  we  turn  to  Buddhism,  the  oldest  of  the  great  interna- 
tional religions,  we  find  that  we  have  before  us  the  problem 
of  a  great  religious  personality,  and  also  the  problem  of  the 
cultural  origins  of  the  religion  which  came  into  existence  in 
connection  with  his  name.  The  most  fundamental  of  these 
problems  is  the  last,  and  one  without  the  full  recognition  and 
appreciation  of  which  Buddhism  cannot  be  understood.  In 
his  time,  the  sixth  century  B.  C.,  the  Aryans  had  invaded  a 
greater  portion  of  India  and  established  their  supremacy.  In 
fact,  the  conquest  having  been  completed,  they  had  settled 
down  to  a  life,  partly  of  industry  and  agriculture,  but  largely 
devoted  to  questions  of  ritual  and  philosophy,  and  to  asceti- 
cism. In  a  degree  they  had  stagnated  or  come  to  be  content 
with  the  conditions  afforded  by  a  rich  and  prosperous  country 
in  a  tropical  climate. 

The  teachings  of  the  Vedas  and  of  the  Brahmanas  had 

[239] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION   OF  RELIGION 

reached  a  stage  when  they  were  not  developing,  but  had  be- 
come highly  specialized  in  the  directions  of  ritual,  magical 
practices,  and  attempts  to  gain  religious  truth  by  means  of 
contemplation  and  retirement  from  the  world.  Into  this  world 
was  born,  to  a  princely  house  in  northeastern  India,  a  son  to 
a  family  of  the  warrior  or  Kshatriya  caste,  though  caste  had 
not  as  yet  taken  on  its  more  rigid  phases.  This  family  belonged 
to  the  Sakiya  clan,  and  lived  not  far  from  Benares,  in  the 
small  city  of  Kapilavastu.  He  was  named  Siddhattha,  but  his 
family  name  was  Gautama,  by  which  he  is  oftenest  known. 
The  title  Buddha  is  an  officicial  one,  and  means  the  enlight- 
ened, signifying  that  he  had  attained  to  Buddhahood  or  com- 
plete knowledge. 

In  a  measure  Buddhism  was  a  reaction  from  the  mosl 
emphatic  phases  of  Brahmanism,  and  especially  against  its 
many  gods  and  its  extreme  claims  in  regard  to  the  nature  of 
the  soul.  On  the  other  hand,  in  every  phase  of  its  earlier  de- 
velopments may  be  seen  its  relations  to  the  older  types  of 
religion  in  India.  Gautama  became  an  ascetic  and  wanderer 
when  a  young  man,  leaving  wife,  child  and  family  relations,  in 
order  that  he  might  find  the  true  way  of  life.  After  consult- 
ing many  wise  men,  and  after  a  long  period  of  search  for  in- 
ward quietness  and  truth,  he  finally  attained  to  Buddhahood 
during  a  period  of  contemplation  under  a  tree.  Accepting  the 
teaching  of  Brahmanism,  that  life  in  this  human  world  is  de- 
termined by  the  wheel  of  existence,  the  round  of  transmigra 
tions  from  one  stage  of  being  to  another,  he  reached  the  con- 
clusion that  it  is  possible  to  escape  from  this  vicious  circle 
and  to  attain  to  a  condition  of  calm,  serenity,  and  inward 
peace.  Having  reached  this  condition  of  freedom  from  the 
round  of  human  evils,  Gautama  had  become  an  Arahat,  one 
free  from  the  wheel  of  rebirth  and  evil.  This  stage  of  enlightr 

[240] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF  RELIGION 

enment  having  been  reached,  Gautama  became  the  Buddha; 
and  might  have  passed  on  into  Nirvana  (now  written  Nibbana 
by  Indian  scholars)  or  the  state  of  perfect  bliss,  and  emancipa- 
tion from  all  evil  and  degradation.  Gautama  preferred  to 
turn  back  to  the  human  world  and  its  sufferings,  in  order  that 
he  might  teach  others  the  means  of  escape. 


The  fundamental  teaching  of  Buddhism,  that  on  which 
rests  all  its  other  doctrines,  is  that  suffering  is  inherent  in  the 
life  of  man,  and  that  it  is  universal.  This  teaching  is  embodied 
in  the  axioms  known  as  the  Four  Aryan  Truths,  that  there 
is  suffering,  that  it  has  a  cause,  that  it  can  be  overcome  and 
suppressed,  and  that  this  may  be  done  by  means  of  the  "path." 
"It  is  the  will  to  life,"  said  Gautama,  as  quoted  in  Ananda 
Coomaraswamy's  Buddha  and  the  Gospel  of  Buddhism,  "which 
leads  from  birth  to  birth,  together  with  lust  and  desire,  which 
finds  gratification  here  and  there ;  the  thirst  for  pleasures,  the 
thirst  for  being,  the  thirst  for  power."  To  bring  about  the  ex- 
tinction of  suffering,  therefore,  is  the  great  aim  of  Buddhism ; 
and  to  secure  emancipation  from  desire,  egotism,  and  the 
insistance  on  self-expression.  This  is  to  be  reached  by  the 
eight-fold  path,  the  path  of  faith  or  of  right  attitude  toward 
the  sufferings  incident  to  humanity.  Rhys  Davids  quotes 
from  the  Vinaya  or  Samyutta,  the  words  of  Gautama  himself 
in  regard  to  his  teachings,  in  this  form : 

There  are  two  aims  which  he  who  has  given  up  the  world  ought 
not  to  follow  after  —  devotion,  on  the  one  hand,  to  those  things  whose 
attractions  depend  upon  the  passions,  a  low  and  pagan  ideal,  fit  only 
for  the  worldly-minded,  ignoble,  unprofitable;  and  the  practice  on  the 
other  hand  of  asceticisms,  which  is  painful,  ignoble,  unprofitable. 
There  is  a  middle  path  discovered  by  [Buddha]  —  a  path  which  opens 

[241] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF  RELIGION 

the  eyes,  and  bestows  understanding,  which  leads  to  peace,  to  insight, 
to  the  higher  wisdom,  to  Nirvana.  Verily!  it  is  this  noble  right-fold 
path.  .  .  . 

Now  this  is  the  noble  truth  as  to  suffering.  Birth  is  attended  with 
pain,  decay  is  painful,  disease  is  painful,  death  is  painful.  Union 
with  the  unpleasant  is  painful,  painful  is  separation  from  the  pleasant ; 
and  any  craving  unsatisfied,  that  too  is  painful.  In  brief,  the  five  ag- 
gregates of  clinging  (that  is,  the  conditions  of  individuality)  are 
painful. 

Now  this  is  the  noble  truth  as  to  the  origin  of  suffering.  Verily! 
it  is  the  craving  thirst  that  causes  the  renewal  of  becomings,  that  is 
accompanied  by  sensual  delights,  and  seeks  satisfaction  now  here,  now 
there  —  that  is  to  say,  the  craving  for  the  gratification  of  the  senses, 
or  the  craving  for  a  future  life,  or  the  craving  for  prosperity. 

Now  this  is  the  noble  truth  as  to  the  passing  away  of  pain. 
Verily!  it  is  the  passing  away  so  that  no  passion  remains,  the  giving 
up,  the  getting  rid  of,  the  being  emancipated  from,  the  harboring  no 
longer  of  this  craving  thirst. 

Now  this  is  the  noble  truth  as  to  the  way  that  leads  to  the  passing 
away  of  pain.  Verily!  it  is  this  noble  eightfold  path,  that  is  to  say, 
right  views,  right  aspirations,  right  speech,  conduct  and  mode  of  live- 
lihood, right  effort,  right  mindfulness  and  right  rapture. 

Such,  in  brief,  was  the  teaching  of  this  warrior  turned 
monk.  For  when  Gautama  came  to  organize  his  religion  it 
was  by  means  of  an  order  exclusively  devoted  to  its  interests. 
He  did  not  ignore  the  great  mass  of  the  people ;  but  he  sought 
to  give  permanence  to  his  teachings  by  ordaining  bodies  of 
men  and  women  who  should,  for  at  least  a  part  of  their  lives, 
live  exclusively  the  life  of  religion.  In  this  respect  Buddhism 
greatly  resembles  Roman  Catholicism,  and  also  as  concerns  its 
rituals  and  its  ideals.  In  Siam,  and  in  other  Buddhist  coun- 
tries, boys  enter  the  order,  are  educated  there,  serve  a  period 
of  apprenticeship  to  their  religion,  and  then  go  forth  again 
to  the  duties  of  daily  life  in  the  world.  The  Buddhist  monk 
lives  on  the  generosity  of  the  people,  who  secure  merit  for  the 
future  by  contributing  to  his  necessities.  In  the  time  of 
Gautama  himself,  he  and  his  disciples  went  forth  once  each 

[242] 


THE    SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

day  carrying  a  bowl,  from  which  they  ate  when  the  generosity 
of  the  people  had  given  as  much  as  was  needed.  In  this  way 
they  were  wanderers  from  place  to  place,  preaching  the  gospel 
of  emancipation  from  pain  and  evil,  and  devoting  the  rest  of 
their  time  to  meditation  and  prayer.  After  the  earliest  period, 
however,  the  monks  and  nuns  were  no  longer  wanderers,  but 
remained  in  their  households,  except  when  gathering  food 
from  door  to  door. 


Gautama  is  usually  represented  to  have  discarded  belief 
in  God  and  in  a  future  life.  In  a  limited  sense  this  is  true; 
but,  on  the  whole,  it  is  far  from  stating  his  exact  position  in 
regard  to  these  religious  beliefs.  He  did  discard  the  great 
pantheon  of  animal  and  nature-divinities  which  Brahmanism 
had  accepted;  but  he  did  follow  the  teachings  of  some  of  the 
more  philosophical  Indian  teachers,  in  that  he  believed  in  an 
underlying  reality  interpreting  and  giving  meaning  to  the  uni- 
verse. In  China  and  most  other  Buddhist  lands,  the  teachings 
of  Gautama  have  probably  been  followed  by  regarding  him  as 
a  divinity  or  by  the  creation  of  a  great  number  of  other  beings 
who  rule  the  universe  and  its  several  manifestations.  In  a 
word,  if  he  was,  as  is  so  often  claimed,  an  atheist,  the  Buddhists 
of  to-day  are  very  far  from  being  of  that  type  of  thought,  since 
they  believe  in,  and  worship,  a  great  number  of  divinities. 

What  Gautama  rejected  was  the  limited  and  imperfect  gods, 
the  gods  who  were  but  men  in  another  guise,  with  all  their 
passions  and  weaknesses.  To  what  extent  he  believed  in  the 
immanence  of  God  or  in  an  impersonal  divinity  or  in  a  panthe- 
ism of  a  philosophical  type,  as  did  many  of  the  Brahmans,  it 
is  difficult  to  say.  At  any  rate,  he  did  not  teach  any  definite 
opinions  in  regard  to  deity;  and  with  reference  to  that  belief 

[243] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION   OF  RELIGION 

he  had  almost  nothing  to  say  in  his  teachings,  probably  quite 
ignoring  such  a  being,  but  without  asserting  that  he  existed  or 
did  not  exist. 

With  reference  to  the  future  life  Gautama's  teaching  was 
far  more  definite,  though  by  Christian  scholars  he  has  usually 
been  assumed  to  have  rejected  that  belief  also.  Probably  both 
beliefs,  that  in  God  and  that  in  immortality,  had  their  basis, 
so  far  as  he  was  concerned,  in  his  conception  of  the  soul.  He 
discarded  the  popular  notions  in  regard  to  the  idea  of  there 
being  in  man  an  essential  nature  other  than  the  body  and  the 
mind.  The  idea  of  the  soul,  as  held  in  India  at  the  period  when 
he  lived,  was  an  evolution  from  primitive  animism;  and  this 
was  not  acceptable  to  Gautama.  An  entity  unlike  all  else  he 
could  not  accept ;  but  his  idea  was  that  of  the  continuity  of  the 
results  of  all  past  experiences,  the  karma  which  has  been  pro- 
duced by  the  round  of  existences  through  which  the  individual 
has  passed  in  the  endless  cycle  of  being.  To  get  rid  of  all  that 
result  of  conflict  with  earth  and  its  sensualities,  was  his  de- 
sire. This  was  the  great  emancipation. 

Buddhism  has  no  cosmology,  no  theory  of  origins  as  re- 
gards the  universe  or  humanity.  Desire,  lust  for  sensation, 
craving  for  the  expression  of  self,  has  made  the  world  as  we 
know  it ;  and  to  suppress  self  is  to  secure  unity  with  the  eternal 
nature  of  things,  harmony  with  the  infinite  realities.  This  is 
what  the  Buddhist  calls  Nirvana,  which  is  not  extinction,  but 
emancipation.  It  is  a  freeing  of  self  from  selfhood,  from  all 
that  clogs  one's  nature,  from  all  that  binds  one  to  the  round 
of  pain  and  suffering.  Following  the  higher  teachings  of  the 
philosophical  schools,  the  individual  comes  back  to  the  great 
Self  from  which  he  emanated;  and  he  is,  as  it  were,  absorbed 
into  the  great  reality  of  being.  In  large  degree  this  is  what 
the  Christian,  and  especially  the  mystic,  has  often  sought  for 

[244] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

in  his  conception  of  heaven,  that  lust,  sin,  and  wrong  would  be 
worn  away,  and  the  inner  self  made  free  for  complete  union 
with  the  eternal  nature  of  God.  Many  persons  will  regard 
this  as  nothing  less  than  annihilation  or  so  nearly  like  it,  that 
they  are  not  able  to  distinguish  between  the  two.  Undoubtedly, 
however,  to  the  devout  Buddhist  it  means  nothing  of  the  kind. 
Rather  does  it  mean  the  sloughing  off  of  what  is  limited, 
earthly,  imperfect,  and  the  gaining,  in  union  with  what  is 
permanent,  that  eternal  emancipation  of  the  mind  which  is 
perfect  bliss.  Release  from  worry,  fret,  care,  sickness,  pain, 
and  all  individual  desire,  this  was  union  with  the  higher  Self, 
and  therefore  entrance  into  Nirvana,  that  is,  into  quietness  and 
peace.  A  highly  mystical  idea,  but  one  found  wherever  mysti- 
cism makes  its  influence  felt  in  the  history  of  religion. 


Buddhism  had  a  great  career  in  India,  spread  widely  over 
the  northern  states,  then  southward,  and  into  Ceylon.  In  later 
centuries  it  passed  onward  into  all  the  countries  of  eastern 
Asia,  and  notably  into  Siam,  Tibet,  China,  and  Japan.  What 
is  most  characteristic  of  it  in  all  these  countries  is  its  teaching 
of  the  spirit  of  peace  and  harmony.  No  other  countries  than 
those  accepting  Buddhism  have  been  so  little  given  to  war. 
No  wars  of  religion  have  ever  been  waged  in  Buddhist  lands. 
In  these  lands  religious  persecution  has  been  almost  wholly  un- 
known. This  means  that  Buddhism  has  been  to  some  degree 
of  a  quietistic  nature,  that  it  has  not  been  pushing  and  ener- 
getic in  the  modern  western  sense ;  and  that  the  Buddhist  lands 
have  been  stagnated  from  the  industrial  and  commercial  point 
of  view.  It  means  also  that  it  has  been  one  of  the  most  tolerant 
of  all  religions. 

[245] 


THE    SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

After  something  like  a  thousand  years  in  India,  Bud- 
dhism gradually  disappeared  from  that  peninsula,  as  a  result 
of  the  revival  of  Brahmamsm,  except  in  the  island  of  Ceylon, 
where  it  has  always  remained  very  strong.  As  it  spread  north- 
ward and  eastward,  and  came  into  contact  with  the  previously 
existing  religions,  largely  animistic  and  polytheistic  in  their 
nature,  Buddhism  showed  its  conciliatory  spirit,  and  readily 
adapted  itself  to  the  old  faiths  of  the  peoples  who  accepted  it, 
thus  largely  corrupting  it  as  regards  the  real  teachings  of 
Gautama  himself. 

As  in  the  case  of  all  other  founders  of  religions,  a  great 
body  of  legend,  folk-tale,  and  myth,  grew  up  about  Buddha. 
The  birth-legends  are  many  in  number,  miracles  came  to  be 
attributed  to  him,  marvellous  tales  were  told  of  his  early  life, 
and  his  birth  was  of  a  virgin  nature  and  of  wondrous  import. 
What  was  true  in  regard  to  his  history  seems  to  be  very  little, 
but  what  was  told  of  him,  and  his  conversations  with  his  dis- 
ciples, forms  a  considerable  body  of  literature.  He  wrote 
nothing,  and  no  part  of  his  numerous  conversations  was  put 
into  writing  while  he  was  alive,  though  he  lived  to  the  age  of 
eighty,  and  frequently  preached  to,  and  conversed  with,  his 
disciples.  After  his  death  his  sayings  and  his  sermons  were 
remembered  and  put  into  written  form.  His  frequent  repeti- 
tions, forming  a  large  part  of  what  he  had  to  say,  evidently 
greatly  facilitated  this  process  of  reducing  his  words  to  writ- 
ing. These  works  are  numerous,  and  comprise,  as  they  now 
exist,  two  groups  of  books,  those  in  Pali,  known  as  the  lesser 
vehicle  or  Hinayana,  and  those  in  Sanscrit,  known  as  the 
greater  vehicle  or  Mahayana.  The  first  of  these  is  that  of 
southern  Buddhism,  as  found  in  Ceylon;  and  is  regarded  as 
giving  more  correctly  than  the  other  the  teachings  of  the 
Buddha.  The  Mahayana  represents  the  new  or  accommodated 

[246] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF  KELIGION 

type  of  Buddhism,  that  modified  and  adapted  to  the  needs  of 
the  more  northern  nations,  such  as  the  Chinese,  who  have 
adulterated  the  teachings  of  Lord  Buddha  to  harmonize  with 
their  earlier  forms  of  religion.  Chinese  Buddhism  has  been 
drawn  from  many  sources,  not  only  from  India,  but  also  from 
Persia,  central  Asia,  perhaps  from  Babylonia,  and  even  from 
more  western  lands. 


The  remarkable  resemblances  between  Buddhism  and 
Christianity  have  puzzled  many  persons;  but  they  may  be 
best  accounted  for  by  that  process  of  diffusion  of  cults  and 
faiths  referred  to  at  the  beginning  of  this  chapter.  Recent 
writers  on  Japanese  and  Chinese  Buddhism  have  recognized 
that  these  resemblances  have  not  been  the  result  of  direct  bor- 
rowing, but  of  that  process  of  the  diffusion  of  religious  rites 
and  beliefs  which  has  gone  on  widely  throughout  the  world, 
and  especially  so  in  the  period  when  the  great  religions  were 
in  process  of  evolution.  Lloyd,  an  Anglican  missionary  in 
Japan,  says  in  his  Creed  of  Half  Japan,  in  explaining  the  re- 
semblances between  the  two  religions,  that  "it  is  perhaps 
enough  to  recognize  that  these  thoughts  were  in  the  air." 
Timothy  Richard,  a  missionary  in  China,  says  in  The  Awak- 
ening of  Faith,  that  "these  common  doctrines  of  new  Bud- 
dhism and  Christianity  were  not  borrowed  from  one  another, 
but  both  came  from  the  common  source."  He  regards  this 
common  source  as  Babylonia,  and  adds  that  from  "this  centre 
those  great  life-giving  inspiring  truths  were  carried  like  seeds 
into  both  the  East  and  the  West,  where  they  were  somewhat 
modified  under  different  conditions."  To  the  same  effect  is 
the  statement  of  Reginald  Fleming  Johnston,  in  Buddhist 

[247] 


THE    SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

China,  where  he  says  that  both  religions  "had  access  to  the 
same  sources  of  doctrinal  inspiration  —  sources  which  in  them- 
selves were  not  specifically  either  Christian  or  Buddhist." 
"We  may  admit, "  he  says  again,  "the  possibility  that  some 
of  the  characteristic  doctrines  shared  by  Christianity  and  the 
Mahay  ana  —  such  as  the  efficacy  of  belief  in  divine  or  super- 
human saviors  incarnating  themselves  in  man's  form  for  the 
world's  salvation  —  were  partly  drawn  from  sources  to  which 
the  builders  of  both  religions  had  equally  ready  access.  We 
may  accept  the  view  that  each  of  these  creeds  incorporated 
certain  ideas  which  had  long  fascinated  the  religious  imagina- 
tion of  a  considerable  portion  of  south-western  Asia." 

Johnston  has  pointed  out,  in  this  work  on  Buddhist  China, 
some  of  the  particulars  in  which  Buddhism  and  Christianity 
resemble  each  other,  as  the  result  of  their  dependence  on  the 
same  common  sources  for  their  origin.  Jesus  and  Sakyamuni 
were  both  deified,  not  at  first,  but  as  the  result  of  the  growth 
of  their  religions,  and  their  contact  with  other  faiths.  Bud- 
dhism emphasized  the  efficacy  of  faith  as  much  as  has  ever 
been  done  by  Protestant  Christianity  —  and  especially  in 
China.  Some  of  the  Mahayanist  sects  have  regarded  it  as  all- 
important.  "Faith  in  Amitabha  [the  source  of  all  the  sub- 
sequent Buddhas]  is  of  itself  sufficient  to  ensure  an  eventual 
birth  in  his  heaven,  and  without  faith  good  works  are  of  no 
avail ;  but  the  candidate  who  has  virtue  and  good  works  to  his 
credit,  as  well  as  a  strong  faith,  will  be  placed  in  a  higher 
class  than  one  who  has  gained  paradise  through  faith  alone." 

The  repetition  of  the  name  of  Amitabha,  the  supreme 
Buddha,  is  of  great  efficacy  in  securing  salvation;  and  in  this 
respect  some  of  the  more  ignorant  Christians  seem  to  agree  in 
their  frequent  repetition  of  the  names  of  Christ,  the  Virgin 
Mary,  or  the  saints.  To  the  Buddhist  the  lotos  is  a  symbol 

[248] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF  KELIGION 

regarded  in  quite  the  same  manner  as  the  Christian  does  the 
cross.  The  Buddhist  believes  that  the  severest  punishment  of 
the  sinner  consists  in  his  exclusion  from  the  presence  of  Bud- 
dha, just  as  some  Christians  maintain  that  the  real  pain  of  hell 
consists  in  exclusion  from  the  vision  of  God.  The  Buddha  is 
not  to  be  judged  from  the  historical  point  of  view,  for  he  is 
above  all  that  belongs  to  time;  and  the  Christian  maintains 
that  Christ  was  from  all  eternity,  that  he  was  eternally  one 
with  the  Father. 

The  Christian  mystics  have  frequently  presented  the  idea 
that  heaven  is  a  condition  of  unity  with  God,  in  which  all  that 
is  selfish,  merely  individual,  and  of  an  earthly  nature,  is 
sloughed  off,  and  only  what  is  of  the  nature  of  pure  personality 
is  retained.  The  Buddhist  mystic  holds  to  the  same  concep- 
tion of  the  future  life.  "  Nirvana  is  a  state  of  blissful  tranquil- 
lity attainable  in  this  life  (not  necessarily  terminable  with  this 
life),  and  is  conditioned  by  a  passing  away  of  all  egoistic  lusts 
and  cravings."  The  Buddhists  greatly  resemble  the  Christians 
of  the  earlier  types  in  their  fondness  for  pilgrimages;  but  this 
development  has  been  common  to  all  the  higher  religions. 

In  one  of  the  Chinese  sacred  books  Maya,  the  mother  of 
Sakyamuni,  is  called  the  "Holy  Mother,"  and  she  is  also  men- 
tioned as  "the  eternal  Mother  of  all  the  Buddhas."  However, 
by  most  Buddhists,  Maya  is  regarded  as  of  an  exceptional 
purity  and  holiness,  but  she  is  not  called  a  divinity.  In  China 
she  is  sometimes  identified  with  the  Taoist  "Queen  of 
Heaven."  There  has  developed  in  China,  nevertheless,  a  pro- 
nounced faith  in  a  female  deity  of  the  highest  importance, 
who  is  regarded  by  the  Chinese  Buddhist  as  superior  to  all 
other  divinities.  This  is  Kuanyin,  known  to  Europeans  as  the 
"Goddess  of  Mercy."  She  is  an  idealization  of  motherhood  in 
quite  the  same  manner  as  the  Virgin  Mary  is  an  almost  exactly 

[249] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF  EELIGION 

similar  idealization.  "She  has  gained  popularity  because  the 
ideal  is  one  which  touches  people's  emotions  and  lessens  the 
gap  between  the  merely  human  and  the  unapproachable  di- 
vine." This  female  deity  is  merciful,  loving,  motherly,  tend- 
erly caring  for  and  consoling  those  who  call  upon  her.  The 
Chinese  speak  of  her  as  the  "One  who  looks  upon  the  world  and 
hears  its  cries. "  "If  any  living  creature  who  is  in  trouble  or 
in  pain  addresses  a  prayer  to  this  pusa  [divine  being],  and  in 
true  faith  calls  upon  her  name,  then  will  the  pusa  immediately 
hearken  to  his  cries  and  bring  him  deliverance  from  his  woes. 
If  any  living  creature  clings  for  support  to  the  potent  name 
of  Kuanyin,  he  may  be  thrown  into  a  raging  furnace,  but  the 
flames  will  leave  him  unscathed ;  he  may  be  in  peril  from  sharp 
swords,  but  the  steel  will  break  in  pieces ;  he  may  be  in  danger 
of  death  from  drowning,  but  the  blessed  pusa  will  come  to  his 
rescue  and  set  him  in  a  place  of  shallow  waters. "  It  is  quite 
apparent  that  Mary  and  Kuanyin  have  many  close  resem- 
blances, though  the  one  may  have  derived  nothing  directly 
from  the  other. 

Although  Buddhism  was  obliged  to  abandon  the  mainland 
of  India,  and  the  regions  of  its  origin  and  early  developments, 
many  centuries  ago,  it  has  lost  little  of  its  vigor;  and  yet  re- 
mains the  dominant  religion  of  Siam,  Burma,  Tibet,  China, 
and  Japan,  and  most  of  the  countries  of  eastern  Asia.  When 
westerners  have  come  into  contact  with  it,  who  are  ready  to 
study,  to  understand,  and  to  appreciate  its  merits,  it  has  been 
received  with  enthusiasm.  In  a  number  of  books  and  espe- 
cially in  that  entitled  The  Soul  of  a  People,  Henry  Fielding- 
Hall  has  written  most  eloquently  on,  and  appreciatively  of, 
Buddhism  as  he  found  it  in  Siam.  The  charm  of  it,  the  gra- 
ciousness  it  develops  in  those  who  truly  accept  it,  and  the  in- 
ward peace  and  outward  harmony  it  cultivates,  Fielding-Hall 

[250] 


THE    SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

has  described  in  a  manner  to  delight  a  great  number  of  readers. 
If  they  have  not  been  inclined  to  turn  Buddhist,  they  have 
certainly  gained  a  more  appreciative  acquaintance  with  one  of 
the  world's  greatest  religions. 

II 

Christianity,  which  comes  next  in  historic  order,  was  more 
largely  influenced  in  its  formation  by  social  and  cultural  con- 
ditions than  any  of  the  other  great  religions.  This  was  due 
to  the  fact  that  it  originated  in  the  midst  of  wide-reaching  en- 
vironing influences,  which  brought  it  to  the  very  focus  of  most 
of  the  great  developing  conditons  of  the  Mediterranean  world. 
As  we  have  seen,  the  Jews  were  in  touch  with  many  parts  of 
the  world  about  them,  and  through  their  borders  passed  the 
great  armies,  along  their  shores  wended  much  of  the  com- 
merce, which  the  world  knew  in  the  time  when  Christianity 
took  its  rise.  Greek  culture  and  civilization  were  gathered 
about  the  sea  of  Galilee,  in  Jerusalem  was  a  seat  of  Roman 
government,  along  the  Mediterranean  coast  were  those  great 
centers  of  commercial  activity,  Tyre  and  Sidon,  and  north- 
eastward not  far  distant  was  the  civilization  of  Syria,  which 
was  then  under  Roman  dominion. 

Probably  no  other  great  religion  was  less  influenced  by  its 
founder  than  was  Christianity,  for  about  him,  as  about  the 
Buddha,  gathered  legend,  folk-tale,  and  myth.  We  have  but 
to  read  the  books  called  the  Apochrapha  to  realize  to  what  an 
extent  they  correspond  to  the  similar  legends  which  gathered 
about  the  beginnings  of  Buddhism.  If  the  Buddha  was  some- 
times assumed  to  be  virgin-born,  and  wonders  attended  his 
advent  into  the  world,  they  were  not  surpassed  by  those  which 
accumulated  about  the  Christ,  the  anointed  or  heavenly  en- 

[251] 


THE    SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

dowed,  as  Buddha  was  the  enlightened.  Marvels,  displays  of 
the  supernatural  and  miraculous,  predictions  and  anticipations 
of  a  marvellous  birth,  belonged  to  the  one  as  to  the  other.  If 
the  mother  of  Christ  was  declared  to  be  of  virgin-birth,  and 
brought  forth  so  as  to  be  afterwards  known  and  accepted  as 
the  Mother  of  God,  something  of  the  same  kind  attended  the 
birth  of  Buddha. 

In  the  ages  when  these  founders  came  into  the  world,  such 
portents  and  supernatural  displays  were  accepted  as  necessary 
to  give  credit  to  any  great  man;  and  not  merely  those  with 
whom  new  religions  originated.  Miracles  were  thought  to 
insure  the  divine  origin  of  the  men  so  attested,  though  to-day 
it  demands  a  Buddha  and  a  Christ  to  give  sanction  to  the 
miracles.  Many  Christians  now  assert  that  miracles  cannot 
take  place,  that  they  give  no  credit  to  religious  truths,  and 
that  their  presentation  shows  a  tendency  far  too  great  to- 
wards what  is  superstitious,  incredible,  and  unbelievable.  No 
truth  gains  in  any  degree  by  their  presence,  or  any  claim  made 
in  connection  with  them. 

An  intimate  study  of  the  age  and  environment  in  which 
Christianity  arose  shows  that  it  was  supersaturated  with  the 
supernatural,  that  it  was  seeking  for  something  incredible 
and  marvellous,  that  it  was  in  a  condition  of  mind  fit  for  the 
reception  of  a  religion  based  on  the  miraculous  and  magical. 
The  old  animism  and  fetishism  had  not  been  wholly  sloughed 
off,  but  were  too  often  received  as  if  they  were  worthy  of  the 
most  vigorous  reception.  Not  all  men  were  of  this  type,  nor 
was  the  whole  of  the  civilization  of  the  world  given  to  the 
ready  acceptance  of  the  miraculous  or  inclined  to  see  portents 
in  the  heavens,  marvels  in  every  passing  phase  of  the  sky. 
Those  who  may  be  inclined  to  open  Pliny's  Natural  History 
will  find  abundant  evidence  in  regard  to  the  mental  attitude 

[252] 


THE    SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF   EELIGION 

of  the  time.  In  the  Metamorphoses  of  Apuleius  may  be  found 
many  a  hint  as  to  what  was  the  religion  of  even  cultivated  men 
in  the  Syria  of  the  days  of  the  advent  of  Christianity.  It  is 
not  to  be  forgotten  that  the  emperors  of  Rome  were  divine  men, 
and  that  they  were  saluted  as  sons  of  god.  They  were  wor- 
shipped, the  worst  of  them  as  well  as  the  best.  It  did  not  seem 
ridiculous  that  such  men  should  be  regarded  as  gods,  and 
prayed  to  for  cures  and  for  divine  aid.  Wherever  there  was  a 
man  bold  enough  to  claim  that  he  was  a  prophet  or  a  god, 
from  wherever  he  may  have  come,  or  whatever  his  character, 
the  crowd  received  him  on  the  basis  of  his  own  assertions.  The 
records  of  the  age  tell  us  of  many  such,  that  they  were  gladly 
welcomed,  and  that  the  bolder  the  claims  the  more  honor  was 
given  to  the  one  coming  forward  in  this  manner. 

It  has  been  claimed  that  the  Buddha  described  in  the 
sacred  books  of  early  Buddhism  could  not  have  lived,  that  the 
stories  told  of  him  are  too  largely  constituted  of  the  incredible 
to  have  any  authentic  historic  basis.  The  same  claim  is  made 
in  regard  to  Christ,  and  by  an  increasing  number  of  the  ablest 
scholars.  Undoubtedly  archaeological  material  has  been  found 
of  one  kind  or  another  authenticating  one  or  another  event  in 
the  early  history  of  Christianity,  that  manuscripts  in  consider- 
able numbers  have  come  to  light  in  recent  years  validating 
various  events ;  but  these  cannot  be  taken  as  support  for  beliefs 
that  depend  not  on  such  materials  as  these,  but  on  their  con- 
formity or  nonconformity  with  reason  and  the  nature  of  man. 


We  may  accept  it  as  probable,  perhaps  as  certain,  that 
there  appeared  in  Palestine,  at  about  the  time  of  the  origin 
of  Christianity,  a  prophet  or  reformer,  who  claimed  to  answer 

[253] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

to  the  Jewish  conception  of  the  messiah.  It  is  by  no  means  in- 
credible that  such  an  enthusiast  should  make  the  assertion  that 
he  was  the  promised  one  sent  of  God  to  redeem  his  people,  and 
that  his  claim  should  be  widely  accepted.  More  than  one  such 
reformer  and  claimant  appeared  in  Jewish  history;  and  that 
a  certain  Jesus  or  Joshua  made  such  claim  is  by  no  means  in- 
credible, or  that  he  should  be  a  peasant,  a  carpenter  or  other 
artisan.  As  we  have  seen,  this  was  a  time  in  which  the  artisan 
world  was  awakening  religiously,  as  well  as  socially.  Those 
who  claim  that  in  its  early  developments  Christianity  was 
largely  an  artisan  movement  are  by  no  means  unlikely  to  be 
correct;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  their  contention  may  be  ac- 
cepted as  most  probable.  Not  only  the  traditions  in  regard  to 
the  occupation  followed  by  Jesus,  and  the  other  traditions, 
which  connected  the  early  Christians  with  the  working-class, 
rather  than  with  those  who  were  prosperous  and  educated, 
would  possibly  point  in  this  direction.  Naturally  enough,  it 
was  not  those  trained  in  all  the  wisdom  of  the  time,  who  had 
come  into  closest  touch  with  the  older  learning,  and  who  were 
connected  with  the  higher  social  and  political  interests,  who 
would  first  turn  for  satisfaction  to  the  new  religion.  Not 
many  in  high  social  circles,  came  into  the  company  of  the  first 
converts ;  but,  rather,  the  poor,  the  manual  workers,  the  artisan 
class,  were  found  in  the  first  believing  circles.  Sinee  Jesus  ap- 
pealed especially  to  the  poor,  to  the  outcast,  to  those  broken 
by  life's  conflicts  and  struggles,  it  is  most  likely  that  these 
persons  and  these  classes  first  drew  towards  the  consolations 
he  offered.  His  condemnation  of  the  rich  and  the  prosperous 
would  give  support  to  the  same  conclusion,  though  it  is  now 
these  same  classes  who  most  zealously  seek  the  religion  offered 
in  his  name. 

The   claim  is  frequently  made   that   Christianity  is  the 

[254] 


THE    SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF   KELIGION 

greatest  of  all  the  religions  of  the  world,  that  it  is  most  in 
harmony  with  the  more  advanced  civilizations,  and  that  it  is 
divinest  in  its  nature.  The  old  assertion  was  that  it  alone  is 
true,  and  that  all  other  religions  are  false.  Many  of  its  advo- 
cates and  defenders  to-day,  however,  are  ready  to  admit  that 
there  is  good  in  the  other  great  religions,  and  that  they  pre- 
sent much  of  truth  to  those  who  accept  them.  Some  will  go 
so  far,  even,  as  to  assert  that  in  Buddhism  and  Islam  salvation 
may  be  found,  perhaps  not  so  perfectly,  but  quite  as  surely  as 
in  Christianity. 

It  is  evident  that  the  exclusive  claim  in  behalf  of  Christian- 
ity grows  out  of  the  spirit  of  sectarianism,  and  is  defended  with 
metaphysical  rather  than  with  historical  evidence.  It  may 
satisfy  those  who  are  concerned  to  uphold  that  with  which 
they  are  familiar,  and  that  which  has  traditional  associations 
with  childhood  and  youth ;  but  it  can  be  of  little  importance  to 
those  who  truly  desire  to  find  what  is  the  truth,  and  who  have 
no  other  end  in  view  in  their  investigations. 


Starting  forth  in  our  quest  for  the  facts,  we  soon  discover 
that  Christianity,  as  in  the  instances  of  all  other  religions,  has 
its  historic  basis  in  the  religions  which  preceded  it,  and  in  the 
mental  attitude  of  the  age  which  produced  it.  About  every 
phase  of  its  early  history  folk-lore,  legend,  and  myth  gather; 
and  they  cling  there  with  the  utmost  tenacity.  J.  G.  Frazer  has 
published  three  big  volumes  on  Folk-Lore  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, and  he  has  by  no  means  exhausted  the  subject.  As 
many  and  as  large  volumes  might  be  written  in  regard  to 
folk-lore  in  the  New  Testament,  and  in  the  history  of  the  first 
!  two  centuries  of  Christianity.  The  Apocrapha  alone  would  fill 

[255] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF  KELIGION 

more  than  one  of  these  volumes,  and  it  ought  to  indicate  what 
was  the  mental  atmosphere  in  which  Christianity  had  its 
origin. 

In  the  introduction  to  the  present  chapter  it  has  been  in- 
dicated to  what  an  extent  the  ancient  religions  were  influenced 
by  common  traditions,  legends,  myths,  and  beliefs,  which 
spread  throughout  western  Asia  and  eastern  Europe.  "  Ideas 
are  propagated  from  school  to  school  and  teacher  to  teacher/' 
says  Percy  Gardner,  "less  often  by  direct  borrowing  which 
comes  of  admiration  than  by  the  parallel  working  of  similar 
forces  in  various  minds.  When  ideas  are  in  the  air,  as  the  say- 
ing is,  men  catch  them  by  a  sort  of  infection,  and  often  without 
any  notion  whence  they  came." 

We  have  seen  how  this  process  operated  in  the  formation 
of  the  new  or  Mahayana  Buddhism,  especially  as  it  appears  in 
China.  Undoubtedly  the  same  process  went  on  in  the  forma- 
tion of  Christianity,  which  had  its  basis  in  Judaism,  but  which 
was  also  influenced  from  Babylonia,  Persia,  Syria,  Asia  Minor, 
and  Greece.  Back  of  it  had  been  growing  for  many  centuries 
throughout  all  Asia,  and  along  the  Mediterranean  lands,  those 
rites  and  beliefs  which  finally  culminated  in  the  Christianity 
of  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries.  The  sources  were  many, 
working  together  in  the  background  of  history,  rarely  coming 
out  into  a  definite  presentation;  but  none  the  less  effectively 
growing  up  the  .religion  which  the  modern  western  world  re- 
gards as  the  best  mankind  has  as  yet  come  to  know.  Every 
phase  of  Christian  rite  and  belief  has  been  affected  by  this 
prehistoric  or  this  subconscious  back-ground  of  developing 
religious  feeling  and  thought. 

Writing  of  the  manner  in  which  religions  in  the  ancient 
world  influence  each  other,  R.  F.  Johnston,  in  his  Buddhist 
China,  says  that  "it  is  now  a  matter  of  common  knowledge 

[256] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF  KELIGION 

that  Christianity  and  Mithraism  were  in  many  respects  amaz- 
ingly alike;  yet  the  best  authorities  assure  us  that  at  the  root 
of  those  two  religions  'lay  a  common  eastern  origin  [Persian 
and  Babylonian]  rather  than  any  borrowing/  '  To  the  same 
effect  is  Louis  Duchesne,  in  his  Early  History  of  the  Christian 
Church,  where  he  says  that  "the  religion  of  Mithras  contained 
elements  —  in  theology,  morality,  ritual,  and  in  its  doctrine 
of  the  end  of  all  things  —  bearing  a  strange  resemblance  to 
Christianity."  Not  only  is  this  true  of  Mithraism,  in  so  far 
as  we  know  it  to-day;  but  in  no  inconsiderable  measure  the 
same  statements  will  apply  to  a  great  number  of  religious 
movements  and  sectarian  developments  preceding  and  follow- 
ing the  beginnings  of  Christianity.  Regarded  as  heresies  by 
the  church,  and  condemned  to  extinction  in  the  selective  pro- 
cesses going  on  in  the  later  periods  of  the  Roman  empire,  yet 
they  all  testify  to  that  teeming  religious  life  of  the  period,  and 
the  working  together  of  many  forces  to  the  making  of 
Christianity. 

The  development  of  Mithraism  affords  an  excellent  il- 
lustration of  the  manner  in  which  religion  was  growing  and 
extending  itself,  in  this  period  when  Christianity  was  origin- 
ating. Originating  in  India,  modified  in  Persia,  gaining  new 
elements  in  Babylonia,  it  passed  onward  into  the  Roman  em- 
pire, where  it  acquired  little  or  nothing,  but  became  for  a  time 
the  leading  religion.  As  in  the  instance  of  early  Christianity, 
it  was  largely  accepted  by  the  humbler  classes,  and  especially  by 
the  soldiers  in  the  Roman  armies.  Its  appeal  was  that  of  a  medi- 
ator between  suffering  humanity  and  the  inaccessible  god  of  all 
being.  "The  rapid  advance  of  Mithraism,"  says  Grant  Shower- 
man  in  the  eleventh  edition  of  the  Encyclopaedia  Brittanica, 
"was  due  to  its  human  qualities.  Its  communities  were  bound 
together  by  a  sense  of  close  fraternal  relation.  Its  democracy 

[257] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

obliterated  the  distinctions  between  rich  and  poor;  slave  and 
senator  became  subject  to  the  same  rule,  eligible  for  the  same 
honors,  partook  of  the  same  communion,  and  were  interred  in 
the  same  type  of  sepulchre,  to  await  the  same  resurrection." 
Showerman  says  that  the  resemblances  between  the  two  reli- 
gions were  very  numerous,  and  he  proceeds  to  indicate  what 
they  were: 

"The  fraternal  and  democratic  spirit  of  the  first  com- 
munities, and  their  humble  origin;  the  identification  of  the 
object  of  adoration  with  light  and  with  the  sun;  the  legends 
of  the  shepherds  with  their  gifts  and  adoration,  the  flood,  and 
the  ark ;  the  representation  in  art  of  the  fiery  chariot,  the  draw- 
ing of  water  from  the  rock;  the  use  of  bell  and  candle,  holy 
water  and  the  communion;  the  sanctification  of  Sunday  and 
the  25th  of  December;  the  insistence  on  moral  conduct,  the 
emphasis  placed  upon  abstinence  and  self-control ;  the  doctrine 
of  heaven  and  hell,  of  primitive  revelation,  of  the  mediation 
of  the  Logos  emanating  from  the  divine,  the  atoning  sacrifice, 
the  constant  warfare  between  good  and  evil  and  the  final  tri- 
umph of  the  former,  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  the  last  judg- 
ment, the  resurrection  of  the  flesh  and  the  fiery  destruction  of 
the  universe  —  are  some  of  the  resemblances  which,  whether 
real  or  only  apparent,  enabled  Mithraism  to  prolong  its  re- 
sistance to  Christianity. "  Showerman  adds  that  at  their 
source  is  a  common  eastern  origin. 

Undoubtedly  there  were  wide  differences  between  the  two 
religons,  some  of  them  of  a  fundamental  nature.  Looking  at 
their  resemblances,  however,  it  is  evident  at  once  that  they 
reached  back  into  other  religions,  and  that  they  came  from  a 
somewhat  remote  past.  A  goodly  number  of  them  may  be 
found  interpreted  in  Frazer's  work  on  the  Folk-Lore  of  the 
Old  Testament. 

[258] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

In  the  Hibbert  Lectures  of  1888,  on  the  Influence  of  Greek 
Ideas  and  Usages  upon  the  Christian  Church,  Edwin  Hatch 
has  pointed  out  the  large  degree  to  which  Christianity  was 
affected  by  Greek  custom  and  thought.  Many  of  the 
higher  natures  in  the  Greek  world  were  drawn  into  Christian- 
ity by  the  kinship  of  ideas.  In  the  western  communities 
Christianity  took  over  the  greater  part  of  the  Greek  inherit- 
ance, and  it  formed  the  basis  of  the  later  creeds.  To  a  con- 
siderable extent,  also,  Christianity  was  influenced  by  the 
mysteries  growing  out  of  the  earliest  religious  developments  in 
Greece.  "  During  the  earliest  centuries  of  Christianity, "  says 
Hatch,  "the  mysteries,  and  the  religious  societies  which  were 
akin  to  the  mysteries,  existed  on  an  enormous  scale  throughout 
the  eastern  part  of  the  empire.  There  were  elements  in  some 
of  them  from  which  Christianity  recoiled,  and  against  which 
the  Christian  apologists  use  the  language  of  strong  invective. 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  majority  of  them  had  the  same 
aims  as  Christianity  itself  —  the  aim  of  worshipping  a  pure 
God,  the  aim  of  living  a  pure  life,  and  the  aim  of  cultivating 
the  spirit  of  brotherhood.  They  were  part  of  a  great  religious 
revival  which  distinguished  the  age." 

Hatch  points  out  rather  conclusively,  that  to  a  very  large 
degree  Christian  ritual,  and  the  manner  of  ecclesiastical  or- 
ganization, were  influenced  by  the  mysteries.  In  the  origin 
and  early  history  of  Christianity  it  was  profoundly  influenced 
by  the  common  religious  development  which  had  been  pro- 
ceeding in  Asia  for  many  centuries;  but  in  its  later  develop- 
ments it  owed  very  much  to  Greek  thought  and  ritual  and 
custom. 

To  the  same  effect  is  the  statement  of  F.  Crawford  Burkitt, 
in  his  book  on  the  Jewish  and  Christian  Apocalypses,  in  which 

[259] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

he  says:  "The  period  between  the  eras  of  Alexander  the  Great 
and  the  Emperor  Constantine,  those  six  centuries  during  which 
Christianity  grew  up,  was  an  age  of  syncretism,  of  the  mingling 
of  religions,  a  period  during  which  European  civilization  was 
especially  influenced  by  Oriental  beliefs.  It  was  the  age  of  the 
Mystery-religions,  the  religions  of  Isis,  of  Mithra,  of  Attis.  The 
dominant  philosophies,  as  we  are  more  and  more  coming  to  see, 
were  the  result  of  the  blending  of  Greek  thought  with  Oriental 
beliefs  and  teachings.  Oriental  Astrology  was  in  itself  a  re- 
ligious philosophy;  it  was  an  attempt  to  formulate  the  influ- 
ences which  to  a  certain  degree  moulded  the  lives  of  all  the 
dwellers  under  the  roof  of  heaven. " 

Biblical  scholars  have  now  come  to  emphasize  the  fact  that 
there  was  no  real  break  between  the  Old  and  the  New  Testa- 
ment, that  there  was  at  this  time  no  period  of  silence,  and  none 
when  religion  was  not  in  an  active  process  of  growth.  This  is 
proven  by  any  genuine  study  of  the  Old  Testament  Apocrapha 
and  the  other  Jewish  literature  of  the  period,  this  statement 
especially  applying  to  the  works  of  Philo.  The  change  from 
Judaism  to  Christianity  was  distinctly  the  result  of  those  power- 
ful syncretist  movements  which  were  transforming  all  the  re- 
ligions of  the  age,  and  acting  as  a  ferment  in  the  creation  of 
the  new  faith.  In  no  period  of  the  ancient  world  was  there 
in  operation  such  an  active  process  of  the  transfusion  anc 
amalgamation  of  rituals  and  beliefs.  The  Jews  were  greatly 
influenced  by  their  contact  with  the  religions  of  Babylonia  and 
Persia,  as  they  were  to  a  lesser  extent  by  those  of  Egypt,  Greece 
and  Anatolia.  At  Tarsus,  where  Paul,  the  real  founder  of 
theological  Christianity,  had  his  early  training,  was  a  focus  of 
these  many  culture  influences  from  both  east  and  west.  Alex- 
andria, as  already  indicated,  was  another  center  of  these  world- 

[200] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION  OF  KELIGION 

developing  tendencies,  and  there  Philo  lived  and  wrote. 
A  powerful  intellectual,  religious  and  ethical  ferment  was  in 
operation  at  this  period;  and  it  unified  in  considerable  degree 
all  the  religious  developments  of  the  ancient  world.  It  brought 
them  to  a  focus  in  Christianity,  the  product  of  several  centuries 
of  growing  thought  and  belief.  This  was  recognized  by  Augus- 
tine in  the  first  book,  thirteenth  chapter,  of  his  Retractions, 
where  he  says :  * '  The  very  same  thing  which  is  now  called  Chris- 
tianity existed  among  the  ancients,  and  was  not  absent  in  the 
beginning  of  mankind,  until  Christ  himself  appeared  in  the 
flesh,  whence  the  true  religion,  which  already  existed,  began  to 
be  called  Christianity." 

It  is  not  necessary  to  ignore  in  any  degree  Jesus  and  his 
personal  influence  in  order  to  reach  this  conclusion;  but  it 
does  transfer  the  center  of  gravity  from  a  personality  to  great 
social  forces  operating  through  long  periods  of  time  and  over 
wide  regions  of  the  ancient  world.  In  order  to  reach  this  con- 
clusion it  is  not  essential  that  we  should  dismiss  to  insignificance 
the  personality  of  Jesus  and  its  effective  operation.  Both  ten- 
dencies must  be  recognized,  it  is  very  evident,  if  we  would 
fully  understand  the  forces  at  work  in  the  production  of  Chris- 
tianity. Hitherto  the  culture  tendencies,  the  social  develop- 
ments, the  ethical  movements,  and  the  intellectual  processes  have 
been  almost  wholly  ignored  in  the  attempts  made  to  explain  the 
origin  of  Christianity.  Now  we  are  coming  to  see  that  no  merely 
personal  influence  could  have  been  great  enough  to  produce 
this  powerful  movement  had  it  not  operated  in  the  direction 
of  those  world-wide  tendencies  which  were  focussed  and  con- 
centrated in  the  new  religion.  In  Christianity  were  culminated 
the  growth-processes  of  a  thousand  years  of  human  evolution, 
especially  in  the  direction  of  ethical  and  religious  developments. 

[261] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

3 

When  we  consider  in  a  scientific  spirit  the  claims  made  in 
regard  to  the  virgin  birth  of  Jesus,  we  find  that  they  have  their 
real  basis  in  the  corresponding  stories  in  regard  to  the  birth 
of  various  divinities,  as  well  as  the  great  men  of  the  ancient 
world.  When  the  claim  was  then  made  that  a  man  was  of 
superior  qualities  of  mind,  that  he  possessed  genius,  it  was  as- 
serted that  he  had  been  supernaturally  born. 

Such  a  claim  was  not  exceptional,  reserved  for  only  a  few 
of  the  divinest  persons ;  but  was  very  commonly  made,  as  often 
as  is  now  that  in  behalf  of  individual  genius.  In  the  three  vol- 
umes of  The  Legend  of  Perseus,  Sidney  Hartland  has 
brought  together  a  great  number  of  such  legends  and  folk-tales, 
proving  beyond  doubt  that  such  births  were  accepted  as  com- 
mon, as  in  a  degree  natural,  and  to  be  found  everywhere,  es- 
pecially wherever  men  rose  to  any  prominence  in  the  several 
walks  of  life.  In  the  concluding  chapter  of  his  highly  inter- 
esting and  instructive  work,  Hartland  says:  "The  super- 
natural birth  we  found  related  in  various  forms,  not  merely 
for  amusement,  but  as  sober  fact,  over  so  large  an  area  of  the 
world  as  to  justify  the  belief  that  it  was  universal.  Every 
nation  has  its  heroes;  and  in  the  popular  mind  the  mightier 
the  hero,  the  greater  the  need  for  providing  him  with  a  worthy 
entrance  upon  his  mortal  existence/7  As  we  have  already  seen, 
the  intent  of  animism  gives  warrant  to  the  notion  of  super- 
natural birth;  and  this  idea  is  supported  by  the  theory  of 
transmigration,  as  well  as  by  that  of  the  fathering  or  mother- 
ing of  children  by  divine  personages.  This  was  no  casual  idea 
of  the  ancient  world,  but  one  of  daily  occurrence  as  an  inter- 
pretation of  every  form  of  genius  and  authority. 

Only  one  conclusion  could  be  reached  by  such  an  extended 

[262] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

study  as  that  given  to  the  subject  by  Hartland,  which  he  pre- 
sents in  this  form:  "If  these  legends  be  universal,  if  they 
must  be  rejected  in  every  case  but  one  as  the  product  of  an  in- 
evitable tendency  of  human  imagination,  then  why  not  in  that 
one  case  also?  Assuredly  that  one  case  can  be  regarded  as 
exceptional,  only  if  it  stand  upon  historical  evidence  totally 
different  in  kind  from  the  others,  and  of  inevitable  cogency. 
But  can  anyone  who  sits  down  (as  it  is  the  duty  at  least  of 
every  educated  man  to  do)  calmly  and,  so  far  as  he  can,  with 
scrupulous  impartiality  to  weigh  the  evidence,  say  that  the 
testimony  of  ecclesiastical  tradition,  or  even  of  our  Gospels, 
is  different  in  kind  from,  or  of  greater  cogency  than,  that 
which  we  reject,  without  hesitation,  in  the  case  of  Sakyamuni, 
or  of  Alexander  the  Great?" 

This  statement  in  regard  to  the  virgin  birth  of  Christ  is 
that  of  a  scientific  investigator  into  the  origins  of  folk-customs 
and  beliefs,  and  into  the  causes  developing  those  great  funda- 
mental ideas  which  lie  at  the  bases  of  all  religions.  We  may, 
therefore,  properly  turn  to  a  Biblical  critic,  one  of  the  ablest 
of  our  time,  T.  K.  Cheyne,  in  his  little  book  on  Bible  Problems. 
He  regards  the  birth-story  as  being  borrowed  from  Babylonia, 
and,  modified  or  supported,  from  Egypt.  "It  arose, "  he  said, 
"out  of  a  misunderstood  title  which  originally  implied  some- 
thing very  far  from  the  thoughts  of  Christians,  and  the  nar- 
rative, to  a  historic  and  therefore  reverent  mind,  is  by  no  means 
disparaged  if  taken  to  stand  in  some  connection  with  the  Egyp- 
tion  theory  of  the  divine  generation  of  kings,  and  the  Philonian 
belief  in  the  divine  generation  of  certain  favored  personages 
of  the  Old  Testament. "  On  a  succeeding  page  he  says  that  the 
legend  is  a  Christian  transformation  of  a  primitive  story,  de- 
rived ultimately,  in  all  probability,  from  Babylonia,  which  has 

[  263  ] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

passed  through  an  oriental  phase,  a  Jewish  phase,  and  then  a 
Jewish-Christian  phase.  He  defends  this  manner  of  interpret- 
ing the  birth-legend  by  saying  that  it  was  a  means  of  express- 
ing the  ancient  longings  of  the  human  heart  for  a  redeemer  of 
men  from  the  evils  incident  to  a  human  world.  When  we  find 
that  it  was  precisely  for  a  similar  reason  that  Buddha  was  as- 
sumed to  have  been  virgin-born,  and  that  supernatural  events 
attended  his  birth,  we  are  in  a  position  to  estimate  the  Christian 
narratives  correctly. 

When  we  press  our  inquiries  a  stage  further  on,  and  dis- 
cover that  the  virgin-birth  leads  the  way  to  the  doctrine  of 
the  incarnation,  and  that  the  two  are  intimately  related  to 
each  other,  we  are  prepared  for  estimating  the  latter  belief 
historically.  What  we  find  is,  —  that  the  conception  of  in- 
carnation is  nearly,  if  not  quite,  as  wide-spread  as  that  of  the 
virgin-birth,  and  that  it  arose  from  the  same  or  similar  causes. 
What  we  have  already  seen  in  previous  chapters,  that  the  gods 
might  be  born  into  human  form,  and  that  gods  might  be  the 
fathers  or  mothers  of  human  children,  prepares  us  for  the  re- 
cognition of  the  idea  of  incarnation  as  characteristic  of  most 
religions,  and  as  having  no  exclusive  connection  with  Christianity. 


The  belief  in  incarnation  began  at  a  very  early  period, 
and  may  be  traced  through  the  religions  of  the  American 
aborigines  and  those  of  Polynesia,  up  through  all  the  higher 
religions ;  in  those  which  are  fetishistic  and  polytheistic,  onward, 
to  those  which  have  become  distinctly  monotheistic.  When  a 
god  assumes  the  form  of  a  man  or  even  of  an  animal,  incarna- 
tion has  taken  place;  and  such  transformation  of  the  higher 

[264] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF  RELIGION 

into  the  lower  is  practically  universal  in  all  the  more  primitive 
religions. 

Turning  to  the  eleven  articles  on  incarnation  in  the  En- 
cyclopaedia of  Religion  and  Ethics,  evidence  enough  appears 
to  convince  the  unprejudiced  mind,  that  the  belief  in  incarna- 
tion is  in  no  sense  peculiar  to  Christianity;  but  that  it  was 
introduced  into  that  religion  because  it  was  essentially  known 
to  all  the  religions  to  be  found  in  the  civilized  world  when 
Christianity  came  into  existence.  The  founders  of  Christianity 
probably  did  not  reason  to  any  great  extent  about  this  belief, 
but  found  it  in  existence,  and  unconsciously  (perhaps  we  may 
say  subconsciously)  accepted  it  as  necessary  to  any  religion  in 
that  age  which  had  meaning  and  purpose.  That  it  should  re- 
main the  cardinal  doctrine  of  Christianity  to  our  day  proves 
to  what  an  extent  even  the  highest  religions  are  based  in  myth 
and  in  the  traditional. 

The  extraordinary  conservatism  of  religion  carries  for- 
ward such  a  belief  as  this,  which  roots  back  undoubtedly  into 
the  most  primitive  conceptions ;  and  enables  men  of  the  largest 
knowledge  and  powers  of  reasoning  to  cling  to  it  with  the  ut- 
most insistance  on  its  value  and  its  truthfulness. 

In  the  Buddhist  sacred  books  we  may  find  in  fullest  details 
the  story  of  the  incarnation  of  the  Buddha.  He  is  not  soiled 
by  birth,  his  mother  was  a  pure  virgin,  and  he  was  therefore  an 
incarnation  of  a  heavenly  being.  Many  of  the  Christian  specu- 
lations in  regard  to  the  incarnation  of  Christ  may  be  found  in 
quite  similar  statements  regarding  that  of  Buddha;  and  the 
authenticity  of  the  one  seems  to  be  as  great  as  that  of  the 
other,  so  far  as  history  throws  any  light  on  the  subject. 

According  to  A.  Wiedemann,  incarnation  in  the  religion 
of  Egypt  was  very  common,  though  not  distinctly  in  the  form 
known  to  Christianity.  On  the  Egyptian  theory  he  says: 

[265] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF  RELIGION 

' '  The  king  was  regarded  as  of  divine  origin,  and  even  as  a  god. 
In  this  aspect,  however,  he  was  not  merely  the  incarnate  form 
of  a  particular  deity,  but  was  a  new  addition  to  the  pantheon — 
one  who,  clothed  in  a  human  form,  and  born  of  a  human  mother, 
lived  as  a  man  amongst  men,  and  yet  could  associate  with  other 
gods  on  a  footing  of  perfect  equality. "  Likewise  in  Greece 
and  Rome  persons  of  superior  talent,  and  kings,  whether  they 
had  any  talent  or  not,  were  regarded  as  incarnate  gods.  Plato, 
when  he  had  attained  to  fame,  was  described  as  the  son  of 
Apollo,  not  merely  by  way  of  flattery  or  in  a  poetical  sense, 
but  as  a  truth  authenticated  by  innumerable  other  instances 
of  a  similar  origin.  In  the  older  religions  of  India  incarnation 
is  a  fundamental  tenet,  and  widely,  if  not  universally,  accepted 
by  all  classes  of  the  population.  In  the  Bhagavat-gita  Krishna 
appears  as  an  incarnation  of  Vishnu;  and  in  that  form  he  sets 
forth  to  much  length  the  mystic  faith  which  forms  such  a 
striking  feature  of  that  work  —  one  of  the  episodes  in  the 
great  epic,  the  Mahabharatta.  Krishna  here  appears  as  a 
man,  but  is  also  the  Supreme  God,  incarnate  in  manlike  form. 
In  so  many  ways  is  Krishna  of  Christlike  type,  and  especially 
is  there  a  great  resemblance,  in  that  work,  at  least  in  some 
respects,  to  the  teachings  of  Jesus,  that  some  Christian  scholars 
have  been  puzzled  by  it,  and  have  tried  to  show  that  Christian 
influence  had  been  at  work  in  India,  in  order  that  this  similar- 
ity might  be  explained.  Why  not  merely  assume  that  similar 
causes  produce  similar  results  in  different  regions? 

5 

The  doctrine  of  atonement  or  expiation  is  also  to  be  found 
in  all  religions  which  have  passed  beyond  the  most  primitive 
phases  of  development.  Wherever  it  has  reached  the  stage  of 

[266] 


THE    SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF  EELIGION 

requiring  a  reconciliation  between  an  offended  god  and  offend- 
ing man,  the  doctrine  of  sin  is  implied.  This  phase  of  it  is  not 
to  be  found  in  the  very  early  religions,  at  least  only  in  an  em- 
bryonic expression.  The  reconciliation  is  rather  between  man 
and  man,  as  where  one  injures  or  takes  the  life  of  another,  in 
the  instance  of  blood-feud.  Here  it  is  customary  that  the  per- 
son who  injures  another  shall  make  restitution,  giving  as  much 
as  he  has  taken.  If  a  life  is  taken  then  a  life  must  be  sur- 
rendered, but  not  necessarily  that  of  the  offender.  The  family 
of  the  injured  become  his  avengers,  and  under  the  earlier 
forms  of  custom,  exact  to  the  uttermost.  In  time  compensa- 
tion in  goods  or  money  might  be  made,  and  reconciliation  might 
be  thus  effected. 

The  forms  of  sacrifice  already  mentioned,  indicate  that 
there  was  an  effort  from  a  very  early  time  to  secure  the  favor 
of  the  dead;  and  this  led  on  to  seeking  the  aid  of  the  gods. 
When  morality  had  advanced  to  a  stage  where  it  was  thought 
that  the  dead  might  be  offended  by  the  actions  of  men,  and 
more  especially  when  it  was  assumed  that  the  gods  would  be 
inclined  to  look  on  the  deeds  of  men  with  approval  or  con- 
demnation, there  gradually  developed  from  the  primitive  con- 
ceptions of  sacrifice,  that  larger  one  of  the  offering  to  these 
divine  personages  of  what  would  appease  them,  and  bring 
about  a  reconciliation.  Here  we  may  find  the  origin  of  the  be- 
lief in  God  as  capable  of  looking  with  dislike  upon  the  ^vil 
deeds  of  men,  and  of  demanding  an  expiation  for  them. 

In  all  religions  and  cultures  we  find  the  idea  of  a  culture- 
hero,  one  sacrificing  himself,  as  in  the  case  of  Prometheus,  for 
the  good  of  mankind.  In  this  instance,  the  hero  combats  the 
gods  in  behalf  of  man ;  but  in  many  others  he  works  with  the 
gods  to  give  men  advantages  they  could  not  otherwise  obtain. 
The  cereals,  the  cults,  the  higher  rituals,  the  medicines  by 

[267] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

which  men  are  healed,  are  brought  to  men  at  the  sacrifice  of 
something  on  the  part  of  those  higher  beings  who  give  them 
benefits.  Even  such  a  people  as  the  Iroquois  believed  in  a 
cosmic  being  who  gave  his  own  life  that  the  world  might  come 
into  existence,  that  from  his  body  might  be  produced  plants 
and  animals,  and  that  his  life  might  nourish  the  life  of  man. 

In  most  of  the  more  advanced  religions,  such  as  the  Baby- 
lonian, Indian,  and  others  in  a  like  stage  of  evolution,  the  the- 
ory of  sin  was  that  based  on  magic,  and  the  power  of  the  evil 
thus  expressed  was  supposed  to  work  harm  to  man.  In  the 
overcoming  of  such  evils  the  aid  of  the  gods  or  of  superior 
beings  was  desirable;  and  they  gave  their  aid  through  the 
priest  and  the  ritual.  All  the  processes  of  ritual  surrender  of 
what  men  held  to  be  of  value,  was  of  the  nature  of  an  atone- 
ment ;  and  it  was  made  effective  by  means  of  the  aid  of  the  di- 
vine beings.  Brahmanism  sought  expiation  in  the  form  of 
penance,  and  this  is  the  meaning  of  dharma,  obedience  to  the 
law  of  duty  and  right  conduct,  ethical  as  well  as  ceremonial. 

These  statements  may  hint  at  the  manner  in  which  the 
doctrine  of  expiation  or  atonement  came  to  have  its  origin.  It 
has  had  a  very  long  evolution,  and  probably  has  not  as  yet 
reached  the  culmination  of  its  development.  The  idea  of  re- 
conciliation, of  harmonizing,  of  securing  unity  and  concord 
between  human  individuals,  and  then  between  these  individuals 
and  the  higher  powers,  is  one  that  can  hardly  be  said  to  have 
had  an  historic  origin  or  one  that  can  be  definitely  determined. 
In  its  various  stages  it  has  been  with  man  from  the  very  be- 
ginning, so  far  as  we  can  now  see.  The  Christian  idea  of  it 
is  somewhat  more  advanced  than  those  which  preceded  it, 
and  it  is  itself  undergoing  a  process  of  rapid  change. 

Two  questions  present  themselves,  when  we  attempt  an 
historic  study  of  the  doctrine  of  atonement.  First,  why  should 

[268] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF  RELIGION 

God  be  offended  with  man,  and  seek  to  punish  him  or  need  to 
have  him  seek  reconciliation?  Secondly,  why  is  the  sin  man 
commits  of  a  nature  or  extent  to  excite  the  wrath  of  God,  and 
make  desirable  man's  search  for  reconciliation?  A  study  of 
these  problems,  thus  presented,  brings  us  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  god  or  gods  demanding  such  reconciliation  are  reflec- 
tions of  human  kings,  who  make  similar  demands,  and  punish 
severely  their  subjects  for  any  offences  against  them,  even 
those  which  are  quite  minute.  To  conciliate  a  king  requires 
flattery,  the  giving  of  money  or  slaves,  or  the  rendering  of 
some  service  he  will  value.  Otherwise  he  will  cast  the  offender 
into  the  hell  (or  dungeon)  deep  under  his  palace  or  his  castle. 
To  propitiate,  to  seek  reconciliation,  to  make  great  sacrifices 
for  life  and  liberty,  are  naturally  offered  by  men  offending 
such  great  personages.  Carry  this  situation  up  to  the  relations 
of  men  with  their  god,  and  we  have  a  true  picture  of  what 
happened  when  men  thought  they  had  offended  deity.  They 
were  willing  to  surrender  every  thing  in  order  that  their  sins 
might  be  expiated,  and  that  the  smile  of  the  god  might  be  se- 
cured again. 

It  was  quite  natural  that  primitive  men  should  think  that 
sickness,  loss  of  crops,  or  death  of  their  friends,  was  the  result 
of  their  having  offended  a  fetish,  an  ancestor  or  a  god.  In 
order  that  they  might  put  aside  the  offense,  and  secure  favor 
once  more,  they  surrendered  what  was  to  them  precious.  In 
the  Hebrew  legend  Abraham  was  willing  to  sacrifice  his  son 
in  order  that  his  god  might  no  longer  look  upon  him  in  anger. 
The  story  marks  a  growth  in  the  idea  of  sacrifice  as  a  means  of 
appeasing  an  offended  god,  in  that  the  sacrifice  of  human  be- 
ings, very  common  in  all  the  early  ages,  was  surrendered  by 
the  god  for  an  animal.  Later  on  contrition  and  repentance 

[269] 


I 

THE    SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

took  the  place  of  the  animal;  and  the  materialistic  forms  of 
sacrifice  largely  disappeared. 

Atonement  is  an  expiation  for  sin.  The  god  is  holy,  when 
ethical  ideas  have  reached  a  high  stage  of  advancement;  and 
he  demands  holy  worshippers.  If  they  are  not  holy,  free  from 
sins,  they  offend  him,  and  must  seek  to  appease  him.  We  see 
the  beginnings  of  this  idea  in  tabu;  and  sin  is  an  advanced 
stage  of  that  primitive  conception.  What  it  implies  is  not  that 
men  neglect  social  duties,  that  they  do  injury  to  other  indi- 
viduals, that  they  fail  to  regard  the  great  ethical  results  of 
human  experience  or  that  they  disregard  the  institutions  of 
the  state;  but  that  they  fail  to  regard  a  highly  metaphysical 
demand  on  the  part  of  God.  Sin  as  theologically  conceived  is 
an  extreme  form  of  tabu,  not  as  required  by  a  chief  or  a  king, 
but  as  insisted  upon  by  deity.  That  one  should  seek  inward 
purity,  fidelity  to  one's  own  conscience,  and  loyalty  to  the 
highest  ideal  of  manhood,  is  desirable ;  but  what  the  Christian 
conception  of  sin  means  is  an  utter  abnegation  of  self  in  the 
desire  to  reach  a  state  of  holiness  or  of  absolute  loyalty  to  God. 

As  just  indicated,  such  a  standard  is  metaphysical  and  not 
practical.  What  characterizes  it  is  disregard  for  human  wel- 
fare, and  an  absence  of  the  humanitarian  spirit,  in  those  who 
most  ardently  demand  that  all  persons  shall  attain  this  stand- 
ard. Loyalty  to  God,  if  it  has  any  meaning  at  all,  is  first  of  all 
loyalty  to  man.  Without  the  human  fidelity  the  other  has  no 
true  ethical  significance.  Holiness  is  selfishness  in  disguise, 
an  attempt  to  disregard  man  in  order  to  serve  God. 

Expiation,  therefore,  is  likely  to  become  ceremonial,  —  a 
form,  a  ritual.  The  more  this  phase  of  it  is  emphasized,  the 
less  ethical  does  religion  become,  and  the  more  routine  are  its 
methods  and  its  spirit.  Nothing  can  truly  take  the  place  of 
the  ethical  life;  and  the  greater  the  emphasis  on  rites  and 

[270] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OP  EELIGION 

ceremonies,  the  less  is  likely  to  be  the  practicality  of  the  moral 
conduct  which  results. 

Regarding  atonement  from  this  point  of  view,  it  is  to  be 
said  of  that  assumed  to  be  offered  by  the  messiahs  and  christs 
of  the  world,  that  it  must  be  voluntary,  and  not  official,  in  order 
to  have  any  permanent  efficacy.  George  Eliot  said  that  the 
spectacle  of  Christ  offering  himself  on  the  cross  for  the  good 
of  others  was  the  sublimest  ideal  presented  to  us  in  the  whole 
history  of  mankind.  As  an  illustration  of  the  spirit  of  self- 
abnegation,  of.  self -surrender  for  the  good  of  others,  this  view 
of  the  story  of  the  cross  may  be  accepted  as  true  and  just. 
It  is  doubtful,  however,  if  it  is  in  any  degree  nobler  than  the 
turning  back  of  Buddha  from  the  attainment  of  Nirvana,  in 
order  to  aid  others  in  finding  the  path  to  peace  in  the  great 
beyond.  In  the  spirit  of  it,  it  is  no  greater  than  when  a  com- 
mon man  gives  his  life  to  rescue  children  from  drowning  or 
women  from  a  burning  house. 

The  reason  why  many  persons  to-day  are  turning  away 
from  the  Christian  conception  of  this  sacrifice  is  that  it  makes 
God  but  a  kingly  tyrant,  and  the  sacrifice,  at  least  as  it  is  often 
presented,  bloody  and  brutal.  The  dwelling  on  the  material- 
istic features  of  the  dying  of  Christ  on  the  cross,  whatever  the 
historical  basis  for  the  narrative,  repulses  thinking  minds, 
and  takes  from  the  story  all  its  poetical  beauty  as  a  humani- 
tarian act. 


6 

One  other  phase  of  Christianity  must  receive  recognition, 
and  that  is  communion  with  God.  Here  again  we  find  some- 
thing universal,  and  not  a  sectarian  phase  of  religious  devel- 
opment. The  least  civilized  peoples,  such  as  the  American 

[271] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF  KELIGION 

aborigines,  the  Fijians,  and  the  negroes  of  Africa,  all  assume 
that  they,  too,  may  have  communion  with  their  god.  They  may 
seek  it  by  means  of  magical  rites,  by  means  of  fasts  and  con- 
tinence, with  ascetic  practices,  with  the  aid  of  dreams  and 
visions;  but  they  believe  they  find  it,  and  are  as  convinced  of 
it  as  is  the  Christian  by  processes  known  to  his  religion.  By 
the  offering  of  food,  by  divination,  by  charms,  by  the  aid  of 
amulets,  the  god  of  many  peoples  is  sought;  but  the  seeking 
testifies  that  there  is  a  felt  want,  and  that  there  comes  assur- 
ance of  response.  In  the  higher  religions  ecstacy  is  thought 
to  indicate  the  presence  of  the  god,  and  inspiration  is  believed 
to  be  the  gift  vouchsafed  to  worthy  devotees.  The  insight  or 
the  intuition  of  prophetic  minds  marks,  perhaps,  a  still  higher 
stage  of  the  same  process.  In  these  and  many  other  ways  is 
man  brought  into  contact  with  God,  and  his  mind  thought  to 
be  opened  to  heavenly  truths. 

Communion  with  God  is  also  very  often  found  in  eating 
with  him,  partaking  of  the  food  that  has  been  consecrated  to 
his  sustenance.  Here  also  we  have  a  long  history,  with  many 
phases,  at  the  first  crude  in  the  extreme  and  purely  materal- 
istic.  We  have  seen  that  food  was  placed  on  the  graves  of  the 
dead  that  they  might  have  provision  for  their  journey  to  the 
other  world.  From  this  stage,  through  a  great  number  of  re- 
finements, we  advance  to  that  where  the  very  God  himself  is 
eaten  by  the  person  who  seeks  communion  with  him.  And  that 
brings  in  another  element,  which  is  that  of  the  belief  that  the 
individual  takes  into  his  system  the  virtues  and  the  strength 
of  what  belonged  to  the  animal  or  the  human  being  eaten. 
Probably  this  idea  lay  at  the  basis  of  cannibalism,  that  in  eating 
the  body  of  a  strong  man  one  becomes  himself  strong.  In  this 
way,  to  partake  of  God,  in  however  symbolical  a  manner,  is 
to  become  godlike.  Behind  all  this,  and  within  it,  is  the  thought 

[272] 


THE    SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

that  in  partaking  of  God  physically  we  come  to  have  his  nature, 
to  become  spiritual  and  holy  as  he  is  divine.  It  is  true  that 
this  rite  largely  loses  its  materialistic  interpretation,  and  be- 
comes spiritualized,  as  it  were.  It  is  accepted  in  a  mystical 
manner,  and  therefore  appears  to  lose  all  or  nearly  all  of  its 
grosser  features.  It  never  quite  escapes,  however,  the  ma- 
terialistic origin  with  which  it  began.  Refine  it  as  we  may, 
the  distinctly  gross  nature  of  its  beginnings  will  forever  cling 
to  it. 

It  having  been  stated  already  that  animism  and  magic 
survive  into  the  higher  and  highest  religions,  it  may  be  desir- 
able here  to  indicate  in  what  manner  these  appear  in  the 
Christianity  of  the  present  day.  (a)  God  is  conceived  of  as  a 
personal  will  acting  throughout  the  whole  of  the  universe,  and 
controlling  its  forces  according  to  his  individual  fiat.  The 
most  modern  conception  of  God  is  that  of  his  immanence  in 
all  nature  and  humanity,  a  life  and  law  within  all  phenomena 
of  whatever  kind.  In  many  respects  it  is  impossible  to  dis- 
tinguish this  from  the  idea  of  the  American  aborigines,  that 
there  is  in  the  world  a  universal  spirit,  a  great  Manitou  or 
Orenda.  It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  the  first  inter- 
preters of  American  Indian  ideas  mistook  this  belief  for  that 
of  faith  in  a  Great  Spirit,  very  like  the  Christian's  God. 

(b)  The  Mass  or  Lord's  Supper  retains  in  large  degree 
animistic  elements.  The  transformation  of  the  material  sub- 
stance into  spiritual  power,  has  its  close  counterpart  in  the 
animistic  processes.  Had  it  not  been  for  animism,  it  is  safe 
to  say,  these  rites  would  not  have  come  into  existence.  The 
primitive  man  believes  that  the  food  he  places  on  a  grave  for 
the  ghost  is  eaten  as  to  its  spiritual  substance.  He  believes 
also  that  when  he  partakes  of  food  consecrated  to  a  god,  that 
this  food  becomes  in  him  a  spiritual  renewal  of  his  higher 

[273] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

being.  Here  are  the  essential  features  of  the  Christian  rites, 
albeit  in  a  crude  form.  Carry  these  up  to  a  refined  and  spirit- 
ualized interpretation,  and  we  have  the  Christian  rites  in  all 
their  significance. 

(c)  The  Holy  Ghost  has  been  often  recognized  by  an- 
thropologists as  having  close  affinities  with  the  primitive  ideas 
of  mana  and  manitou.  The  silent,  subtle,  pervasive,  mysterious 
action  of  this  divine  power  is  largely  of  the  same  impersonal 
character.  It  is  of  close  kin  and  positive  descent  from  that  of 
the  primitive  manitou  of  primitive  peoples  in  many  parts  of 
the  world.  The  third  person  of  the  Christian  trinity  passed 
through  several  stages  of  development,  as  did  the  other  mem- 
bers of  it.  In  its  origin  the  trinity  partook  of  the  nature  of  a 
family  of  father,  mother  and  son,  in  which  form  it  is  to  be 
found  in  many  countries,  at  several  periods  of  human  history, 
and  in  several  manifestations.  The  early  Christians  fre- 
quently regarded  the  holy  ghost  as  feminine,  and  as  affording 
the  mother  element  in  the  triune  godhead.  The  subtleties  of 
Greek  philosophy  turned  the  three  individualities  of  the  trin- 
ity into  abstractions  rather  than  personalities,  and  in  that  man- 
ner secured  that  there  should  be  one  in  three,  one  person  with 
three  manifestations.  All  these  processes  in  creating  the  Chris- 
tian God  betray  their  affinities  with  the  primitive  phases  of 
thought  as  to  the  nature  of  the  god. 

In  this  connection  it  may  not  be  out  of  place  to  say  that 
the  reason  why  the  chief  personage  in  the  Christian  trinity 
was  recognized  as  male,  and  why  the  Christian  world  wor- 
ships a  Father  as  the  supreme  deity,  is  to  be  found  in  the  ideas 
in  regard  to  generation  which  were  everywhere  accepted  in 
the  ancient  world.  Aristotle  in  his  Generation  of  Animals, 
and  in  other  works,  said  very  distinctly  that  the  origin  of 
life  is  from  the  father,  who  is  the  real  causing  agent  in  the 

[274] 


THE    SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

production  of  the  child.  In  the  Code  of  Manu  it  is  asserted 
that  the  mother  is  but  as  the  field  in  which  the  seed  is  sown, 
fatherhood  corresponding  to  the  seed.  In  more  philosophical 
statement  this  is  the  assertion  of  Aristotle.  The  same  view 
of  generation  is  to  be  found  in  China,  in  Egypt,  and  through- 
out the  whole  ancient  world  where  paternalism  had  been  es- 
tablished in  the  family  and  in  social  interpretations.  Plato 
voiced  the  same  conception.  It  underlies  the  Christian,  theory 
of  God,  whether  most  conservative  or  most  liberal. 

The  matriarchal  conception  of  motherhood,  however,  lin- 
gered on  in  the  Christian  manner  of  worshipping  the  feminine 
principle  in  the  virgin  Mary  as  the  Mother  of  God.  Had  it  not 
been  for  the  acceptance  of  the  Roman  idea  of  the  dominance 
of  the  masculine  in  the  family,  in  the  state,  and  in  religion, 
Jt  is  not  in  the  least  impossible  that  the  Mother  rather  than  the 
Father  would  have  been  regarded  as  at  the  head  of  the  trinity 
and  the  dominating  spiritual  force  in  the  threefold  deity. 


It  is  not  possible  to  pass  by  the  resurrection  of  Christ  as 
a  Christian  dogma.  No  one  can  have  studied  it  as  it  is  presented 
in  the  churches  at  the  present  time  without  recognizing  to  what 
a  great  extent  it  has  its  basis  in  nature-symbolism,  which  is 
even  now  largely  retained  in  its  presentation  at  each  Easter 
season.  The  awakening  of  nature  in  spring  is  regarded  as  typi- 
cal of  the  arousing  of  man  from  the  grave,  and  his  ascent  to 
a  higher  life.  When  we  turn  back  to  this  symbolism  in  the  great 
nature-religions  of  the  world  about  the  Mediterranean,  as  they 
have  already  been  presented  in  these  pages,  we  cannot  doubt 
that  the  Christian  conception  of  the  resurrection  of  Christ  had 
its  origin  in  these  myths.  Many  of  the  details  of  it  can  be  there 

[275] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION  OF   RELIGION 

duplicated,  as  that  of  the  descent  of  Christ  to  the  world  of 
the  dead,  in  order  to  offer  to  them  release  from  the  thralldom 
in  which  they  were  held. 

As  in  the  case  of  the  other  Christian  dogmas  mentioned, 
this  one  was  by  no  means  new,  but  had  been,  and  was,  widely 
accepted  in  the  ancient  world.  Ancient  legend  is  full  of  ac- 
counts of  the  descent  of  the  living  into  the  other  world  out  of 
curiosity  as  to  its  nature  and  location,  with  the  view  of  liber- 
ating some  one  who  had  died  or  that  some  good  might  be  ac- 
complished for  the  denizens  of  that  lower  world.  Then  again, 
ancient  legend  and  myth  have  many  a  tale  to  tell  of  the  resurrec- 
tion of  the  dead  to  a  renewal  of  life  on  the  earth.  One  of  the 
most  remarkable  of  these  myths  is  that  of  the  resurrection  of 
Osiris,  and  of  his  becoming  in  consequence  the  lord  of  the  world 
of  the  dead.  In  his  chapter  on  the  death  and  resurrection  of 
Jesus,  in  his  work  on  Jesus  the  Christ  in  the  Light  of  Psy- 
chology, Stanley  Hall  deals  to  a  considerable  extent  with  the 
doctrine  of  the  resurrection  in  mythology,  and  shows  rather 
conclusively  that  there  would  have  been  no  Christian  doctrine 
of  the  resurrection  had  not  this  dogma  found  a  large  place 
in  the  earlier  religions.  In  the  myths  of  Adonis,  Attis  and 
Osiris,  and  to  these  might  be  added  many  another  from  other 
parts  of  world,  the  resurrection  found  its  origin  and  all  its 
significance.  The  basis  of  this  conception  was  the  return  of 
vegetation  to  new  life  in  the  spring,  symbolized  under  the  form 
of  a  young  and  dying  god.  To  this  may  be  added  the  wish  for 
the  immortality  of  the  dead,  and  for  reunion  with  them  in 
some  world  of  the  future.  With  reference  to  the  resurrection 
of  Osiris,  and  his  becoming  the  lord  of  the  dead,  Stanley  Hall 
has  this  to  say,  which  suggests  much  in  regard  to  the  presenta- 
tion of  this  dogma  in  the  pages  of  the  New  Testament : 

"  Orthodox  Egyptian  tradition  says  that  the  grief  of  this 

[276] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION  OF   RELIGION 

dolorous  mother  [Isis]  induced  the  sun-god  Ea  to  send  down 
Anubis  who  gathered  and  swathed  the  scattered  parts  of  the 
body,  observed  all  the  rites  over  them,  and  fanned  the  clayey 
remains  with  wings  until  at  last  Osiris  revived  and  returned  as 
king  both  of  the  upper  earth  and  among  the  dead.  He  became 
Lord  of  Eternity,  ruler  of  the  lower  regions,  where  he  judges 
and  rewards  all  souls  after  death  according  to  their  merits. 
The  morality  of  the  Egyptian  Book  of  the  Dead  is  very  like 
that  of  Jesus,  and  those  who  are  acquitted  live  in  a  land  of 
indescribable  fertility  and  beauty  where  men  and  animals  are 
young  and  fair,  and  there  is  eternal  verdure.  In  Osiris 's  resur- 
rection the  Egyptians  see  a  pledge  of  their  own  immortality: 
'As  surely  as  Osiris  lives  I  shall  live/  Belief  in  resurrection  is 
suggested  by  the  custom  of  embalming,  which  was  physically 
very  like  that  of  Osiris.  Mourning  for  him  began  when  the 
Nile  began  to  rise.  Then  the  dams  were  ceremonially  cut  and 
the  soil  became  the  bride  of  the  Nile.  Seed-sowing  was  in 
autumn,  and  was  sad;  for  planting,  as  among  primitive  people 
to-day,  suggests  the  burial,  and  is  often  connected  with  the 
festival  of  the  dead.  Thus  representatives  of  potentates  are 
often  killed,  dismembered,  or  burned  to  increase  the  fertility 
of  the  soil,  so  that  in  Egypt  special  precautions  were  taken 
that  the  bodies  be  not  cut  up  and  their  fragments  used  as 
talismans  for  this  purpose.  Osiris  was  originally  a  tree  spirit, 
and  pillars  solemnly  erected  to  him  were  symbols  of  resurrec- 
tion. Even  from  this  so  bald  sketch  we  can  glimpse  the  culture 
atmosphere  which  pervades  so  much  of  Christianity,  and  can 
see  that  not  only  in  the  regions  which  Jesus  knew  but  perhaps 
still  more  in  those  which  Paul  knew  and  where  the  church  first 
had  its  development,  these  cults  were  developed  in  both  their 
higher  and  lowest  forms,  and  their  influence  was  very  per- 


vasive. ' J 


[277] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

Stanley  Hall  insists  that  the  passion  and  the  resurrection 
must  to-day  be  discussed  in  view  of  a  vaster  background  than 
the  Old  Testament  affords,  for  he  sees  in  them  the  culminating 
expression  of  the  central  theme  of  many  cults  far  older  than 
they,  all  about  the  eastern  Mediterranean,  each  of  which  con- 
tributed its  best  elements  to  the  Christian  beliefs  clustering 
about  these  features  in  the  Christ  story.  He  goes  on  to  show 
that,  had  it  not  been  for  these  older  products  of  the  folk-soul, 
there  would  have  been  no  Christian  belief  in  the  resurrection 
from  the  dead.  In  its  inmost  core,  in  its  essential  character,  this 
belief  of  Christianity  originated  in  these  old  myths,  and  in  them 
it  finds  all  its  assurance  and  all  its  beauty. 

In  his  study  of  the  resurrection,  Stanley  Hall  has  sought 
its  meaning  for  the  Christian  believers  of  our  own  day.  By 
means  of  a  questionnaire  he  has  tested  its  significance  for 
present-day  Christian  faith  with  the  conclusion  that  it  no  longer 
affords  a  large  measure  of  comfort  or  faith  for  the  believer  in 
immortality.  There  may  be  set  down  here  the  conclusions  which 
he  reached  as  the  result  of  his  investigations : 

"  (a)  Many  think  they  believe  in  it  as  a  literal  fact  be- 
cause they  have  never  candidly  examined  the  nature  of  their 
affirmation  of  it.  This  few  can  do,  and  still  fewer  do.  Some 
fear  disillusion  or  dread  the  labor  of  reconstruction.  As  Al- 
bertus  Magnus  and  Aquinas  carefully  reserved  certain  dog- 
mas from  the  sphere  of  philosophic  thought,  so  this  psychic 
process  is  set  apart  as  too  sacred  for  investigation,  (b)  Many 
have  some  degree  of  faith  in  too  crude  a  form  of  it  even  to 
be  able  to  attain  the  full  conviction  they  crave,  and  so  are  un- 
happy, halting  and  praying  for  more  faith  when  they  ought 
to  reinterpret  it  into  a  form  the  mature  modern  mind  demands, 
(c)  Others  think  they  find  aid  to  their  own  faith  by  vociferous 
and  dogmatic  affirmation  of  some  form  of  it,  or  find  their  own 

[  278  ] 


THE    SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

belief  reinforced  by  censuring  what  they  deem  shortages  or 
errors  in  the  belief  of  others,  on  psychic  laws  akin  to  those  which 
make  young  Mormons  suspected  of  doubt  reclaimed  by  faith 
by  being  sent  on  missions  to  preach  their  doctrines  among  here- 
tics, and  who  by  becoming  advocates  instead  of  judges  convert 
themselves  if  no  others,  (d)  Yet  others  with,  and  surpris- 
ingly often  without,  any  knowledge  of  Kant's  critique  of  the 
practical  reason  and  its  postulates,  hold  to  the  conventional 
form  of  belief  because  they  think  its  effects  on  the  conduct  of 
thought,  life,  or  both,  are  a  higher  criterion  or  sanction  than 
any  which  reason  can  supply.  The  highest  truth  is  that  which 
works  supremely  well,  (e)  Many  hold  to  it  esthetically.  Art 
has  embodied  it  in  many  forms  that  edify  and  give  a  true 
hedonic  narcosis,  and  so  they  have  grown  indifferent  to  his- 
torical validity.  It  is  venerable,  hallowed  by  association  and  by 
a  consensus  so  wide  as  to  be  itself  sublime.  Moreover,  poetry 
is  often  truer  than  fact,  (f)  Many  think  it  essential  to  the 
young,  and  while  they  feel  that  it  is  outgrown  in  their  own  ex- 
perience deem  it  vital,  saving  truth  for  children  and  youth, 
to  the  needs  of  which  they  subordinate  not  only  their  own 
lives  but  their  convictions,  and  find  a  pedagogic  virtue  in  so 
doing  that  they  reconcile  with  personal  standards  by  often 
elaborate  accommodation  theories,  (g)  Finally,  a  few  devout 
souls  whose  private  lives  are  consecrated  to  the  imitation  of 
Jesus 's  life,  and  who  live  for  good  works,  distinctly  and  con- 
sciously reject  all  forms  of  resurrection.  Of  these,  some,  chiefly 
women,  were  shocked  to  first  realize  their  unbelief  and  are  more 
assiduous  in  practicing  the  Christian  graces  as  if  to  atone  for 
a  defect,  while  others,  more  often  men,  have  found  great  satis- 
faction in  their  eclaircissement,  but  believe  they  can  do  most 
good  by  conforming  and  working  in  the  harness  of  convention- 
ality, or  perhaps  think  this  an  article  of  faith  best  left  to  lapse 

[279] 


THE    SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

from  the  Christian  consciousness  quietly,  as  they  believe  it  will 
do ....  But  few,  if  indeed  any,  held  to  a  belief  in  the 
resurrection  that  would  satisfy  the  conventional  standards  of 
orthodoxy  in  the  denomination  to  which  they  belonged.  This 
shows  a  wide  chasm  between  the  latter  and  the  true  facts  of 
inner  religious  life." 

Here  is  evidence  enough  as  to  the  mythical  origin  of  the 
belief  in  the  resurrection;  and  it  is  not  surprising,  in  view 
of  that  origin,  and  considering  the  fact  to  which  Stanley  Hall 
refers,  that  the  New  Testament  report  as  to  the  resurrection 
of  Christ  is  by  no  means  authentic  and  historic,  that  a  very 
large  degree  of  skepticism  exists  in  regard  to  it.  It  belongs  to 
another  age  than  our  own,  and  it  now  survives  almost  wholly 
because  of  traditional  causes.  We  believe  in  it,  if  we  believe 
at  all,  because  men  long  ago  found  it  satisfactory,  and  because 
we  have  not  dared  to  slough  it  off  as  no  longer  worthy  of  modern 
thinking. 

Negative  as  this  interpretation  of  the  origin  of  Christianity 
may  seem  to  be,  its  purpose  is  to  emphasize  the  syncretist  nature 
of  that  religion,  that  it  has  its  foundation  in  what  has  gone 
before,  and  that  it  is  in  no  inconsiderable  degree  a  culmination 
of  the  religious  strivings  of  mankind  through  all  the  preced- 
ing ages.  In  this  sense,  if  in  no  other,  it  may  be  regarded  as 
the  noblest  and  truest  of  all  the  world's  religions.  Without  the 
preceding  religions  it  could  not  have  come  into  existence;  and 
it  is  also  dependent  on  all  the  social,  political  and  philosophical 
advancements  of  the  preceding  ages.  In  no  inconsiderable  de- 
gree its  limitations,  as  well  as  its  excellences,  are  owing  to  its 
growth  out  of  the  past  life  of  mankind.  Especially  its  ethical 
ideals  and  its  social  purposes  had  their  origin  in  its  capacity 
to  grasp  and  to  emphasize  what  was  best  in  the  earlier  ages. 

[280] 


THE    SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

Stripped  of  his  legendary  and  miraculous  settings,  the 
Christ  may  be  regarded  as  the  purest,  loftiest,  and  most  human 
figure  in  the  history  of  religion.  His  moral  teaching,  his  human 
sympathy,  his  fellowship  with  the  poorest  and  meanest,  his 
boundless  compassion,  his  fidelity  to  his  own  convictions  even 
to  the  bearing  of  the  cross,  gave  him  a  character  above  that  of 
any  of  the  gods  of  the  ancient  world. 

We  cannot  doubt  that,  as  Emerson  said,  there  has  been  a 
vast  exaggeration  of  what  is  artificial  and  unbelievable  that  has 
gathered  about  the  person  of  Christ.  Nevertheless,  many  a 
thinker  and  reformer  of  the  present  day  finds  in  him,  when  the 
legendary  has  disappeared,  a  figure  most  attractive  and  most 
trustworthy.  Rejecting  all  the  theological  and  metaphysical 
beliefs  which  have  been  inherited  from  the  old  religions,  and 
which  have  been  added  to  in  the  course  of  the  Christian  cen- 
turies, we  may  admire  the  character  of  Christ,  and  we  may  seek 
to  conduct  our  lives  in  the  spirit  of  his  ethical  teachings.  Many 
a  man  who  accepts  none  of  the  dogmas  of  Christianity  admires 
and  loves  this  gentle  teacher,  and  believes  in  his  boundless  sym- 
pathy with  suffering  and  toiling  men  and  women.  Here  is  his 
greatness,  and  the  worth  of  his  ethical  precepts. 

Ill 

When  we  give  our  attention  to  Islam,  the  religion  founded 
by  Mohammed  (Muhammad),  we  may  be  more  than  ever  con- 
vinced that  the  physical,  social  and  political  environment  has 
a  dominating  influence  in  the  formation  of  any  and  every  re- 
ligion. It  is  by  no  means  enough  to  say,  that  the  desert  con- 
ditions of  Arabia,  the  nomadic  and  pastoral  life  of  its  population, 
gave  Islam  its  true  character;  but  we  cannot  doubt  that  the 
one  had  its  effects  in  shaping  the  other.  We  must  also  take  into 

[281] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF  RELIGION 

consideration  the  fact  that  many  Jews  were  living  in  the  Arab- 
ian cities  at  the  time  of  Mohammed,  the  sixth  century,  and  that 
Christianity  was  known  there,  though  in  some  of  its  more 
perverted  forms.  There  yet  lingered  in  Arabia,  to  a  very  con- 
siderable extent,  the  old  nature-worships;  and  many  of  the 
rites  and  beliefs  of  the  older  types  of  the  early  Semitic  religion. 
All  of  these  had  their  influence  on  Mohammed,  and  on  the  man- 
ner in  which  Islam  came  to  its  development  during  his  life, 
and  for  two  or  three  centuries  after  his  death.  Islam,  too,  had 
a  true  syncretist  origin. 

In  a  few  cities  like  Mecca  and  Medina  Arabian  culture  had 
reached  a  considerable  degree  of  advancement.  We  know  that 
many  centuries  before  an  advanced  type  of  civilization  had 
appeared  in  the  south  of  Arabia,  but  this  had  not  been  per- 
manent. The  tendency  was  that  the  desert  should  assert  itself 
against  all  advancements  made  into  its  borders,  and  that  the 
desert  populations  should  migrate  to  more  favorable  regions. 
In  this  manner  Babylonia,  Syria,  Ethiopia,  and  to  some  degree 
Egypt,  had  been  populated  from  the  Arab  peninsula.  In  the 
time  of  Mohammed  the  Arabians  were  tribesmen,  keeping  their 
clan  organization,  their  clannish  habits  and  living  largely  the 
life  of  nomads.  Outside  a  few  cities  they  roamed  the  desert, 
bred  their  camels  and  their  horses,  attacked  the  caravans  when- 
ever opportunity  offered;  and  lived  largely  the  life  of  maraud- 
ers and  highwaymen. 


Into  such  a  world  as  this  came  Mohammed,  born  in  Mecca 
in  the  year  632,  June  7.  Of  him  it  may  be  said  that  he  is  the 
only  great  founder  of  a  religion  of  whom  we  know  the  year  of 
his  birth  or  have  any  definite  historical  evidence  in  regard  to 

[  282  ] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF   KELIGION 

his  family,  manner  of  life,  daily  pursuits,  and  how  his  religion 
grew  in  his  own  mind.  Even  the  life  of  Mohammed,  however, 
is  lacking  in  many  details,  and  many  difficulties  present  them- 
selves in  regard  to  its  more  important  episodes.  Tradition,  if 
not  folklore,  gathered  about  his  life;  and  we  find  much  that 
is  obscure  in  his  acts  as  in  his  teachings.  This  may  be  said,  how- 
ever, that  his  life  stands  out  in  clearer  historic  perpective  than 
in  the  instance  of  any  other  great  religious  founder.  The  im- 
press of  his  mind  is  marked  deeply  on  his  religion;  and  we 
must  know  him,  and  the  conditions  amidst  which  he  lived,  in 
order  to  comprehend  the  beginnings  of  the  Mohammedan  re- 
ligion. "No  religious  code  extant,"  justly  remarks  Emanuel 
Deutsch,  "bears  so  emphatically  and  clearly  the  marks  and 
traces  of  one  mind,  from  beginning  to  end,  as  the  Koran." 
Deutsch  goes  on  to  remark  that  it  is  next  to  impossible  to 
separate  the  man  from  his  book.  "True,"  he  says,  "the  more 
than  twenty  years  which  its  composition  occupied  are  em- 
balmed in  it  with  all  their  strange  changes  of  fortune,  with 
their  terrors  and  visions,  their  curses  and  their  prayers,  their 
bulletins  and  their  field-orders.  The  Koran  does  indeed  illus- 
trate and  explain  its  author's  life  so  well  that  hitherto  every 
biographer  (and  there  have  been  many  and  great  ones)  has 
suggested,  in  accordance  with  his  own  views,  a  different  ar- 
rangement of  that  book." 

It  is  because  Mohammed  composed  the  Koran,  and  be- 
cause it  was  extant  from  the  very  beginning  of  his  religion, 
that  we  may  regard  its  foundations  as  standing  forth  historic- 
ally as  in  the  instance  of  no  other  religion.  Whether  Moham- 
med could  write  or  not  is  not  quite  certain,  though  it  is 
probable  he  could  not.  In  that  case  he  dictated  to  a  scribe 
his  inspirations,  visions,  ecstatic  thoughts,  and  his  revelations. 
These  were  thrown  into  a  heap,  and  were  not  always  carefully 

[283] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION  OF  EELIGION 

considered  or  copied.  In  time,  however,  when  he  had  become 
a  great  man,  these  scraps  of  writing  were  brought  together 
and  shaped  into  the  Koran.  No  record  had  been  kept  as  to 
when  each  verse  or  sura  had  been  composed.  Consequently, 
when  the  book  was  edited,  a  somewhat  mechanical  arrange- 
ment was  resorted  to,  the  chronological  order  of  composition 
not  being  remembered,  even  by  Mohammed  himself.  This  is 
the  reason  why,  though  the  life  of  Mohammed  is  largely  em- 
bedded in  the  book,  and  though  it  gives  the  unfolding  of  his 
spiritual  experiences  and  growth  in  theological  beliefs,  no  one 
has  ever  been  able  to  determine  these  with  any  definiteness. 
Consequently,  each  historian  arranges  the  suras  in  such  order 
as  he  thinks  best  explains  the  development  of  the  biographical 
and  historical  events.  Here  is  history,  as  in  the  instance  of 
the  origin  of  no  other  religion;  but  history  confused  and 
chaotic. 

Mohammed  was  born  of  an  important  clan  in  Mecca,  but 
his  early  life  was  lowly,  until  he  married  a  rich  widow,  much 
older  than  himself;  and  by  her  and  an  uncle  he  was  enabled 
to  give  his  time  and  his  interest  to  religion.  An  epileptic,  he 
had  visions,  sought  out  a  cave  where  he  had  mighty  dreams 
of  the  presence  of  angelic  beings  conversing  with  him,  gradu- 
ally came  to  the  idea  that  God  was  calling  him  to  a  great 
task.  When,  however,  he  began  to  preach  of  one  god,  and  to 
claim  to  be  in  some  way  the  prophet  or  voice  of  that  god,  he 
was  laughed  at,  hated,  persecuted,  and  threatened  with  death. 
His  uncle,  a  powerful  man  in  the  tribe,  who  was  a  sceptic  in 
so  far  as  concerned  Mohammed's  visions,  at  least,  protected 
him.  At  last,  though  he  had  made  a  number  of  converts,  be- 
ginning with  his  wife  and  other  members  of  his  family,  he 
advised  his  followers  to  flee  to  Ethiopia,  where  the  Jews  would 
protect  them.  He  himself  went  to  Medina.  This  flight  or 

[284] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF  KELIGION 

hejira  was  the  greatest  event  in  the  history  of  Mohammed,  and 
became  the  date  of  the  beginning  of  the  Mohammedan  era. 


At  Medina  Mohammed  sought  the  favor  of  the  Jews  and 
the  Christians,  and  soon  made  a  compact  with  a  part,  at  least, 
of  the  people  of  that  city,  that  they  should  accept  him  as  their 
prophet,  and  that  they  should  give  him  their  support  in  the 
spreading  of  his  religion.  Soon  he  reurned  to  Mecca  with  an 
army,  conquered  that  city,  and  brought  the  people  to  accept 
the  faith  of  Islam.  From  this  time  on  he  was  king,  judge, 
leader  of  an  army,  and  a  conqueror,  whose  arms  spread  through 
Arabia,  and  into  other  countries.  What  is  most  notable  in 
this  successful  spread  of  Islam  is  the  remarkable  awakening 
it  brought  about  in  the  Arabs.  From  being  nomads  and  shep- 
herds, they  became  in  a  few  years  the  conquerors  of  southern 
Asia  and  northern  Africa,  spreading  into  southwestern  Europe. 
Even  more  remarkable  was  the  awakening  of  their  mental 
natures,  so  that  from  being  mere  herdsmen  and  marauders, 
they  took  the  lead  of  the  world  in  culture,  in  science,  and  in 
all  phases  of  intellectual  advancement.  In  a  century  or  two 
they  had  mastered  the  culture  of  Greece,  knew  Aristotle,  and 
became  the  leaders  in  all  forms  of  philosophy  and  science. 
When  they  broke  into  Europe,  through  Spain,  it  seemed  more 
than  probable  that  they  would  become  the  intellectual  and  re- 
ligious, as  well  as  the  military,  leaders  of  mankind.  More  than 
one  historian  gives  them  the  credit  of  saving  the  old  culture  of 
the  Roman  empire,  and  carrying  it  over  to  the  period  of  the 
renascence  and  passing  it  on  to  modern  times. 

When  it  is  said  that  Islam  is  the  one  religion  that  has  been 
propogated  by  the  sword,  it  is  true  in  no  inconsiderable  meas- 

[285] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

ure;  but  these  other  facts  deserve  also  to  be  remembered,  and 
given  just  recognition.  Nor  is  this  criticism  on  the  part  of 
Christians  wholly  justified,  in  view  of  the  facts  connected 
with  the  crusades,  the  persecution  of  the  Cathari  and  Al- 
bigenes,  and  the  war  lasting  for  a  hundred  years  after  the 
Eeformation,  which  devastated  and  largely  depopulated  all 
Germany.  What  Christianity  has  done  in  the  way  of  waging 
religious  wars,  and  in  the  persecution  of  those  who  did  not 
agree  with  one  or  another  set  of  its  tenets,  is  by  no  means  an 
excuse  for  Mohammedanism;  but  those  who  are  without  fault 
in  this  respect  should  be  the  ones  to  cast  stones. 

No  apology  should  be  offered,  however,  for  the  darker 
side  of  the  career  of  Mohammed,  though  we  need  not  condemn 
him  in  order  to  praise  another  religion,  as  has  been  the  custom 
very  generally  resorted  to  by  the  critics  of  Islam.  D.  S.  Mar- 
goliouth,  the  chief  authority  on  Islam,  says  of  the  life  of 
Mohammed:  "In  order  to  gain  his  ends  he  recoils  from  no 
expedient,  and  he  approves  of  similar  unscrupulousness  on  the 
part  of  his  adherents,  when  exercised  in  his  interest.  He 
profits  to  the  utmost  from  the  chivalry  of  the  Meccans,  but 
rarely  requites  it  with  the  like.  He  organizes  assassinations 
and  wholesale  massacres.  His  career  as  tyrant  of  Medina  is 
that  of  a  robber-chief,  whose  political  economy  consists  in  se- 
curing and  dividing  plunder,  the  distributing  of  the  latter 
being  at  times  carried  out  on  principles  which  fail  to  satisfy 
his  followers'  ideas  of  justice.  He  is  himself  an  unbrideled 
libertine  and  encourages  the  same  passion  in  his  followers. 
For  whatever  he  does  he  is  prepared  to  plead  the  express 
authorization  of  the  deity." 

We  may  suspect  that  this  severe  criticism,  undoubtedly 
based  on  facts,  has  taken  on  at  least  a  tinge  of  sectarian  pref- 
erence, and  readiness  to  condemn  what  did  not  match  with  the 

[286] 


,,+v 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF   KELIGION 


author's  accepted  beliefs.  Recognizing  what  is  good  and  what 
I  is  striking  in  the  religion  taught  by  Mohammed,  we  may  reach 
the  conclusion  that  Islam  presents  us  with  the  only  unequi- 
vocally monotheistic  religion  the  world  has  known.  The  Jews 
became  monotheist,  but  after  a  struggle  of  many  centuries,  and 
only  at  the  very  end  of  their  sacred  books.  Christianity,  with 
all  its  claims  as  to  monotheism,  has  retained,  in  its  doctrine 
of  the  Trinity,  no  inconsiderable  remnant  of  the  old  poly- 
theisms. Mohammed  said  that  there  is  no  God  but  God,  and 
that  Mohammed  is  his  prophet  only.  He  refuses  to  accept 
Jesus  as  in  any  sense  the  son  of  God.  He  added,  It  is  not 
fit  that  God  should  have  a  son,  for  he  is  neither  begotten  nor 
begets. 

3 

Mohammed  was  an  ardent  believer  in  immortality,  though 
his  paradise  has  in  it  too  many  sensual  pleasures  to  make  it 
wholly  attractive  to  men  of  a  high  ethical  temper.  Much  of 
the  old  Arabian  animism  and  fetishism  clung  to  his  teach- 
ing, as  was  natural  in  such  an  environment  as  his.  He  be- 
lieved in  a  world  peopled  with  jinns  and  afrits,  diabolical  be- 
ings; and  in  angelic  hosts  without  number.  It  must  be  said 
of  Mohammed,  however,  that  he  made  less  use  of  the  miracu- 
lous than  any  other  great  founder  of  a  religion,  though  he  by 
no  means  discarded  this  supernatural  element.  In  this  respect 
primitive  Christianity  was  saturated  with  the  miraculous 
compared  with  what  we  find  in  the  history  of  early  Islamism. 
In  two  respects,  at  least,  the  moral  teaching  of  Moham- 
med was  sound,  in  that  he  abolished  gambling  and  drunken- 
ness. In  respect  to  woman  his  attitude  was  far  less  advanced, 
for  he  regarded  her  as  largely  a  mere  instrument  of  man's 

[287] 


THE   SOCIAL    EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

pleasure,  and  as  his  servant.  He  continued  polygamy,  and 
permanently  fastened  it  upon  his  religion.  He  did  abolish  infan- 
ticide, and  especially  that  of  girls,  which  had  been  very  com- 
mon in  the  Arabia  preceding  his  time.  He  inculcated  honor 
to  parents,  and  he  gave  emphasis  to  the  spirit  of  toleration. 

In  theology,  as  might  be  anticipated  when  we  consider 
the  stage  of  culture  which  had  been  reached  in  the  Arabia  of 
Mohammed's  time,  he  was  distinctly  anthropomorphic;  and 
it  has  been  truly  said  that  Allah  is  a  magnificent  oriental 
despot.  The  angel  throng  about  him  is  that  of  a  splendid 
court,  with  its  ranks  one  above  another,  and  its  autocratic 
tendencies  in  all  directions.  Very  distinctly  materialistic  is 
the  heaven  and  the  hell  of  Mohammed,  though  not  wholly 
lacking  in  spiritual  and  ethical  significance.  His  teachings  in 
regard  to  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  probably  taken  over 
from  his  religious  predecessors,  is  most  materialistic,  the  actual 
body  being  that  which  survives  the  grave. 

Two  simple  doctrines  formed  the  whole  substance  of  the 
teaching  of  Mohammed  —  that  God  is  one,  and  that  Moham- 
med in  his  prophet.  He  added  other  doctrines  to  these;  but 
this  was  all  that  was  essential,  the  whole  of  the  creed  of 
Islam.  In  his  Mohammed  and  Mohammedanism,  Bosworth 
Smith,  the  most  apologetic  of  all  Christian  interpreters  of  Is- 
lam, says  of  this  creed:  "The  essence  of  Mohammedanism 
is  not  merely  the  sublime  belief  in  the  unity  of  God,  though 
it  is  difficult  for  us  to  realize  the  tumult  of  the  feelings  and 
the  intensity  of  the  life  which  must  be  awakened  in  a  poly- 
theistic people,  who  are  also  imaginatve  and  energetic,  when, 
on  a  sudden,  they  recognize  the  One  in  and  behind  the  Many. 
Mohammed  started  indeed  with  the  dogmatic  assertion  that 
there  was  but  one  God,  the  Creator  of  all  things  in  heaven 
and  earth,  all  powerful,  knowing  all  things,  every  where  pres- 

[288] 


THE   SOCIAL    EVOLUTION   OF  KELIGION 

ent.  He  reiterates  this  in  a  thousand  shapes  as  the  forefront 
of  his  message ;  and,  sublimely  confident  that  it  need  only  be 
stated  to  insure  ultimate  acceptance,  he  deigns  not  to  offer 
proof  of  that  which,  in  his  judgment,  must  prove  itself." 

Any  attempt  to  follow  the  history  of  Islam  would  be  im- 
possible here;  but  it  may  be  suggested  that  any  fair-minded 
survey  of  that  history  will  show  many  bright  spots.  The  ac- 
cusation often  made  that  Islam  is  sensuous  and  materialistic 
almost  exclusively,  is  not  justified  in  regard  to  some  of  its 
more  ethical  and  spiritual  developments.  In  the  teachings  of 
the  Sufis,  and  in  their  poetry,  highly  mystical  as  they  are, 
may  be  found  many  a  phase  of  noble  religious  import.  The 
same  is  true  of  that  more  recent  development,  originating  in 
Persia  in  the  last  century,  at  first  known  as  Babism,  but  now 
as  the  Bahaist  movement.  Highly  spiritual  in  its  nature,  it  is 
at  the  same  time  very  positively  humanitarian. 

This  survey  of  the  greater  religions  of  the  world,  and 
especially  those  which  have  had  individual  founders,  may  lead 
us  to  the  conclusion  that  even  these  religions  have  grown  out 
of  those  which  preceded  them,  and  that  none  of  them  owes 
its  origin  without  qualification  to  a  great  personality.  As  was 
hinted  at  in  the  second  chapter,  religion  is  in  large  degree  an 
organic  growth,  human  in  origin,  and  whose  evolution  is  de- 
termined by  social  and  intellectual  phases  of  the  progress 
of  culture.  No  religion  in  its  origin  can  go  beyond  the  stage 
of  civilization  in  which  it  arises,  and  no  one  of  them  has  as  yet 
jbrought  to  man  truths  he  could  not  have  himself  discovered 
by  other  means  than  those  of  inspiration  and  revelation. 

As  we  have  already  seen,  all  religions  claim  to  be  revela- 
tions, to  have  explored  the  heavens  and  to  have  brought  back 
to  man  what  he  could  not  ascertain  by  his  unaided  faculties. 

[289] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OP   RELIGION 

The  aboriginal  inhabitants  of  America,  as  of  all  the  other  con- 
tinents, have  made  the  same  claim;  and  it  appears  to  be  as 
valid  for  the  savage  as  for  the  most  civilized.  "We  have  no 
means  of  knowing  that  there  is  something  hidden  from  the 
common  man  which  only  prophet  and  priest  can  make  known 
to  him.  "Rather  is  it  probably  true  that  humanity,  in  its  on- 
ward march,  in  its  great  unfolding  evolution,  is  step  by  step 
finding  out  the  secrets  of  God,  and  coming  slowly  to  follow 
the  path  which  leads  to  the  good  of  the  race,  and  to  a  great 
confidence  in  what  lies  beyond  the  present  ken  of  man. 


[290] 


CHAPTER  VII 

Universal  Religion 

THE  international  religions  have  claimed  to  be  universal, 
or  have  sought  to  become  so ;  and  this  is  more  especially 
true  of  Christianity.  Some  of  the  Christian  churches  have 
taken  the  name  of  Catholic,  and  in  that  manner  have  empha- 
sized their  claim  to  universality.  Such  a  claim,  however,  is 
rather  prophetic  than  historical,  for  no  religion  has  ever  yet 
become  in  any  true  sense  universal.  Christianity,  according 
to  the  most  recent  estimates,  based  upon  such  statistics  as  are 
accessible,  is  accorded  a  larger  following  than  any  other  re- 
ligion; but  it  does  not  have  amongst  its  adherents  a  majority 
of  the  population  of  the  globe.  It  is  only  in  anticipation  of 
what  may  come,  therefore,  that  any  religion  can  be  called 
universal;  and  because  Christianity  has  been  extended  into 
every  part  of  the  world  alone  justifies  its  being  called  catholic. 
Buddhism  is  confined  to  eastern  and  southeastern  Asia, 
and  has  only  the  smallest  following  on  any  other  continental 
division  of  the  earth.  Islam  extends  across  Asia,  far  into  its 
northern  regions,  over  many  of  the  southeastern  islands, 
and  also  over  northern  and  central  Africa.  It  has  no  follow- 
ing on  the  western  continent.  Christianity  is  universally  ac- 
cepted in  Europe,  except  in  the  southeast.  It  has  churches 
in  southwestern  Asia  and  northeastern  Africa,  reaching  back 
almost  to  its  beginnings;  and  it  has  missions  in  many  other 
parts  of  those  continents.  In  America  it  is  almost  universally 
accepted;  and  in  the  Pacific  islands  it  has  made  great  prog- 

[291] 


THE   SOCIAL    EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

ress,  as  it  has  in  some  parts  of  Africa.  Only  in  the  sense  that 
it  has  been  preached  in  every  part  of  the  world,  and  zealous 
efforts  have  been  made  for  its  propaganda,  can  it  be  claimed 
as  universal.  Certain  tribal  peoples  have  never  yet  been 
brought  into  the  acceptance  of  its  rites  and  its  beliefs;  and 
it  appears  to  represent  too  high  a  type  of  culture  to  enable  it 
to  win  such  peoples.  On  the  other  hand,  it  has  met  with  only 
a  moderate  success  where  the  civilization  was  of  a  high  type, 
as  in  India,  China,  and  Japan.  The  religion  of  these  lands 
has  grown  out  of  the  people's  life,  is  in  harmony  with  their 
culture-development;  and  they  resist  a  religion  coming  from 
another  type  of  culture,  and  representing  another  form  of 
civilization. 

When  we  survey  the  whole  of  the  history  of  religion,  so 
far  as  our  sources  of  information  will  permit  us  to  do  so,  and 
consider  it  in  all  the  periods  of  its  evolution,  it  is  apparent 
that  it  has  undergone  many  changes,  and  that  it  has  been  modi- 
fied by  numerous  revolutions,  in  the  form  of  new  rites  and 
new  beliefs.  One  of  the  most  important  of  all  these  causes 
of  change  has  been  the  contact  of  one  religion  with  another, 
brought  about  by  war,  slavery,  and  migration.  Probably  the 
most  potent  of  these  causes  of  change  has  been  migration  and 
the  contact  of  cultures. 

As  we  have  seen  in  the  preceding  chapters,  mankind  has 
advanced  from  tribal  through  feudal  to  national  political 
organization;  and  there  has  then  followed  the  grouping  of 
nations  to  form  great  empires.  Religion  has  been  profoundly 
modified  by  these  social  and  political  evolutions.  In  its  origin 
it  belonged  to  the  food-group,  then  to  the  hunting  band,  fol- 
lowing that  to  the  tribe,  and  the  succeeding  phases  of  political 
evolution.  That  is,  in  all  early  forms  of  society,  the  religion 
belonged  to  the  group,  whether  it  was  a  band,  a  tribe  or  a 

[292] 


THE   SOCIAL    EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

nation,  and  did  not  extend  beyond  its  limits.  This  develop- 
ment may  be  seen  more  clearly  in  the  instance  of  the  Jews 
than  in  that  of  any  other  people,  for  Yahweh  was  emphatically 
their  God,  and  could  belong  to  no  other  people,  since  he  had 
chosen  the  people  of  their  nation,  as  they  believed,  as  his  espe- 
cially beloved  and  faithful  adherents.  In  lesser  degree  this 
was  the  conviction  of  each  tribe  and  nation  throughout  the 
world  in  regard  to  its  own  divinities,  that  they  belonged  par- 
ticularly to  those  who  worshipped  them.  Since  each  nation 
had  its  own  gods,  it  must  follow  that  the  people  and  the  gods 
were  of  one  company  or  family,  forming,  as  was  often  said, 
one  household  or  fellowship. 


A  process  went  on  from  a  very  early  time  by  which  those 
changes  were  brought  about  that  may  be  described  by  the 
use  of  two  words,  migration  and  affiliation.  Man  is  the  most 
restless  and  forward-pushing  of  all  animals.  All  other  ani- 
mals, at  least  those  which  are  feral,  have  a  local  habitation, 
a  certain  range  of  territory,  which  is  most  highly  fitted  to 
their  needs,  and  to  affording  them  the  necessary  food-supply. 
But  man  has  great  adaptability,  far  more  so  than  any  other 
animal,  and  has  fitted  himself  to  all  climates  and  to  all  geo- 
graphical areas.  His  invention  of  tools,  implements,  clothing, 
shelters  in  the  form  of  tents,  huts  or  houses;  and  his  ability 
to  domesticate  plants  and  animals,  and  to  bring  himself  into 
subjection  to  customs  and  laws,  as  well  as  to  add  the  arts  and 
sciences  to  his  equipment,  has  enabled  him  to  live  in  mountain 
regions,  on  the  steppes  that  seem  to  spread  out  endlessly,  and 
even  in  desert  regions  that  give  almost  no  promise  of  affording 
subsistence  to  his  life-needs.  He  finds  himself  at  home  in  the 

[293] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

burning  tropics  and  in  the  freezing  arctics,  and  in  all  the 
regions  that  come  between. 

From  the  earliest  periods  man  has  been  migratory,  hunting 
new  lands,  ever  pushing  out  into  new  regions,  seeking  fresh 
.adventures  with  the  world  in  which  he  lives.  In  our  own  day 
we  have  seen  this  tendency  largely  at  work,  peopling  the  great 
west  of  our  own  country,  subduing  the  wilds  of  Canada,  and 
finding  habitation  in  Australia,  New  Zealand,  South  Africa, 
the  islands  of  the  far-off  seas,  and  in  many  a  land  all  around 
the  globe.  So  far  back  as  we  know  anything  of  man  he  has 
been  the  self-same  seeker  for  new  worlds  to  conquer,  partly 
pushed  on  by  the  spirit  of  adventure,  and  partly  because  of  the 
loss  of  fertility  to  regions  he  had  inhabited  for  centuries,  and 
partly  by  the  push  of  other  peoples  led  on  by  these  or  similar 
causes. 

Whatever  has  brought  peoples,  at  any  stage  of  their  devel- 
opment, into  close  contact  with  each  other,  has  had  the  effect  of 
modifying  their  religion.  Internal  resources,  the  influence  of 
original  minds  or  the  natural  growth  resulting  from  the  gen- 
eral advance  of  a  people,  have  not  usually  been  sufficient  to 
account  for  those  changes  in  culture  and  religion,  which  we  see 
taking  place  wherever  there  is  anything  which  can  be  de- 
nominated as  progress.  Much  of  this  advance  everywhere  has 
come  about  by  means  of  contact  of  tribe  with  tribe,  nation 
with  nation,  either  as  a  result  of  war,  trade,  strife  for  the 
possession  of  territory  and  resources  or  as  resulting  from 
friendly  affiliation  by  coalescence.  This  latter  tendency  has 
had  more  permanent  and  wider  results  than  any  of  the  other 
processes,  though  trade  and  commerce  may  be  described  as  of 
the  same  nature. 

Affiliation  or  amalgamation  comes  about  by  several  differ- 
ent processes,  one  of  which  is  the  conquest  of  a  weaker  nation 

[294] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION  OF  KELIGION 

by  a  stronger.  In  that  case  it  has  often  occurred  in  the  history 
of  the  past  that  the  weaker  nation  has  given  its  culture  and 
its  religion  to  the  physically  stronger,  thus  finally  conquering 
the  conquerer  in  all  that  most  concerns  the  higher  interests 
of  nations.  Another  process  is  that  of  the  adoption  of  the  art, 
the  traditions,  the  culture,  and  the  religion  of  a  more  ad- 
vanced people  by  one  that  is  less  advanced.  This  is  not  always 
the  result  of  conquest  or  pressure  of  material  interest,  but 
may  result  from  the  readiness  of  the  less  advanced  people  to 
assimilate  what  they  had  not  themselves  discovered  or  in- 
vented. This  process  goes  on  widely  in  all  stages  of  tribal 
society  and  beyond  it.  Over  considerable  areas  we  find  the 
same  customs  extending,  passing  over  tribal  barriers,  thus 
preparing  the  way  for  the  union  of  tribes  into  confederacies. 
The  same  process  goes  on  after  the  national  stage  has  been 
reached.  In  this  manner  the  same  culture,  and  essentially  the 
same  religion,  found  expression  in  China,  Corea  and  Japan; 
throughout  the  Mongul  tribes  and  nations  of  central  Asia;  in 
all  the  region  in  Europe  and  Asia  occupied  by  the  ancient 
Greeks;  and  in  all  the  countries  to  which  the  Semites  had 
extended. 

Some  of  the  results  of  migration  have  a  great  meaning  for 
the  history  of  religion.  Though  the  Semites  originated,  prob- 
ably, in  Arabia,  yet  because  of  the  scanty  fertility  of  their 
land,  and  its  small  resources  even  for  grazing,  they  spread 
out  into  all  the  neighboring  more  fertile  lands.  The  result 
was  that  their  culture,  to  no  small  extent,  spread  with  them, 
into  Egypt  and  neighboring  regions  in  Africa,  and  throughout 
all  southwest  Asia.  An  even  more  remarkable  instance  of  the 
results  of  migration  may  be  seen  in  the  spread  of  the  Aryans. 
Originating,  as  scholars  are  now  generally  agreed,  in  northern 
Europe,  a  large  body  of  them  crossed  western  Asia,  and  ap- 

[295] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF  EELIGION 

peared,  perhaps  3000  years  B.  C.  in  the  region  of  Persia. 
After  a  considerable  period  had  passed  they  divided,  and  one 
part  proceeded  to  the  conquest  of  India.  Another  movement 
of  this  same  people  was  into  the  eastern  coast-land  of  the 
Mediterranean,  and  were  the  enemies  of  the  Hebrews  as  the 
Philistines.  Yet  one  more  small  group  invaded  Asia  Minor 
and  are  known  to  history  as  the  Phrygians,  having  settled  in 
the  central  mountainous  region  of  that  peninsula.  The  tra- 
ditions of  the  Greeks  tell  us  of  several  invasions  by  this  same 
people  into  the  continental  regions  in  Europe  and  Asia,  as 
well  as  the  islands  of  the  ^Bgean,  which  were  occupied  during 
the  historical  period.  Other  movements  of  this  race  may  be 
seen  in  the  history  of  the  Romans,  Celts  and  Teutons.  All 
these  peoples  were  offshoots  from  the  primitive  Aryans;  and 
their  languages,  their  religions,  and  their  literatures,  have 
close  affiliations  with  each  other.  One  of  the  most  remarkable 
of  historical  discoveries  in  the  eighteenth  century  was  that  of 
the  fundamental  unity  of  these  peoples,  and  the  tracing  out 
of  their  language  and  other  affinities. 

What  the  migration  of  peoples  has  done  in  connection 
with  the  history  of  religion  has  been  to  bring  the  otherwise 
distinctly  tribal  or  national  religions  into  touch  with  each 
other,  thus  modifying  them  in  one  degree  or  another.  In 
the  early  periods,  as  we  have  recognized  more  than  once, 
religion  was  distinctly  tribal  or  national,  shut  up  largely 
within  the  limits  of  one  social  and  political  unit.  The  religion 
was  coterminous  with  the  tribe  or  the  nation,  a  veritable  part 
of  its  life,  growth  of  its  growth,  and  known  only  within  its 
limits.  When  such  a  religion  was  brought  into  intimate  rela- 
tions with  another  religion  because  of  the  amalgamation  of 
tribes  or  nations,  the  religion  also  took  on  wider  limits  and 
grew  to  greater  proportions.  In  this  process  all  the  gods 

[296] 


THE   SOCIAL    EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

of  a  nation  were  carried  over  to  the  larger  political  unit,  as 
those  of  the  tribe  had  been  retained,  along  with  those  of  other 
tribes,  to  form  the  pantheon  of  the  nation.  It  was  by  such  a 
process  that  polytheism  came  into  existence.  This  may  be 
seen  at  work  in  all  its  phases  and  modifications  in  the  history 
of  religion  in  Greece  and  Egypt. 


II 

An  unprejudiced  and  unsectarian  study  of  the  origins  of 
the  great  religions  makes  it  certain  that  they  came  into  exis- 
tence by  the  same  process,  that  is,  as  the  result  of  the  contact 
of  civilizations  and  religions.  Buddhism  was  evidently  born 
of  the  clash  of  religious  tendencies  in  India  in  the  period  when 
it  came  into  existence.  In  a  degree  it  was  a  protest  against 
the  philosophical,  ritualistic  and  theological  developments  of 
the  time,  and  an  attempt  to  escape  from  the  dogmas  which 
bound  man  to  the  eternal  round  of  rebirth.  The  many  philoso- 
phies which  had  grown  up  in  India  testified  to  the  tireless 
process  of  speculation  in  which  men  had  entangled  themselves, 
and  to  the  need  for  some  way  to  escape  from  dogma  and  from 
the  round  of  being.  Gautama  solved  the  problem  in  the  only 
way  possible  under  the  given  conditions,  by  ignoring  much 
philosophical  speculation,  and  by  assuring  himself  that  re- 
birth can  be  escaped.  If  he  reached  his  emancipation  with 
the  aid  of  an  agnostic  attitude  as  regards  the  soul  and  God, 
denying  the  existence  of  both  in  the  old  theological  and  philo- 
sophical manner  of  their  acceptance  by  his  predecessors,  it  was 
that  way  lay  hope  and  progress. 

No  one  to-day  undertakes  to  interpret  the  origins  of 
Buddhism  without  an  extended  study  of  the  Vedic  growth 
of  religion  in  India,  and  its  evolution  into  Brahmanism,  and 

[297] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF  KELIGION 

finally  into  Hindusism.  Back  of  these,  and  essential  to  any 
large  perspective  view  of  Buddhism,  must  be  studied  the  Aryan 
invasion  of  India,  and  the  varied  phases  of  the  civilization 
thus  produced.  In  a  word,  Buddhism  is  a  product  of  the 
Aryan  culture  developed  under  conditions  of  invasion,  inti- 
mate contact  with  the  native  population  in  the  process  of 
their  conquest,  the  spreading  of  that  culture  over  the  penin- 
sula, and  the  resulting  growth  in  all  the  varied  arts  of  civili- 
zation. Its  more  specific  features  may  have  resulted  from  its 
having  had  its  origin  in  the  Kshatriya  or  warrior  class,  the 
demand  that  caste  should  no  longer  override  all  social  and  re- 
ligious interests,  and  the  wish  to  escape  from  merely  meta- 
physical speculation  into  a  life  of  practical  service  in  behalf 
of  genuine  human  interests. 

Any  study  of  Islam,  however  sympathetic  it  may  be,  must 
take  note  of  the  conditions  under  which  it  had  its  origin.  To 
assume  that  it  sprang  full-born  from  the  brow  of  Mohammed, 
armed  and  equipped  for  every  effort  life  may  demand,  is  to 
quite  misapprehend  its  real  significance  as  representing  a 
most  interesting  and  important  human  movement.  We  cannot 
regard  Mohammed  as  anything  more  than  a  torch  from  which 
was  lighted  a  continental  conflagration  of  great  proportions. 
The  way  for  this  movement  had  been  preparing  for  many 
centuries,  and  Mohammed  did  no  more  than  give  the  initial 
incentive  which  precipitated  it  at  the  time  when  he  lived, 
rather  than  at  a  somewhat  later  period.  We  cannot  doubt  that 
within  a  century  or  two  of  his  birth  such  a  movement  as  he  in- 
augurated would  have  developed  in  the  peninsula  of  Arabia, 
had  he  not  lived.  In  a  word,  Mohammed  was  not  necessary 
to  a  new  Arabian  revolution,  such  as  had  broken  out  at  the 
time  of  the  origin  of  Judaism.  Moses  is  but  a  name  connected 
with  that  earlier  revolution;  and  very  nearly  all  that  we  read 

[298] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF   KELIGION 

of  him  in  the  Jewish  literature  is  traditional,  when  it  is  not 
mythological.  What  is  historical  belongs  to  the  desert  people 
who  came  out  of  Arabia  and  settled  in  Palestine,  and  not  to 
the  man  who  is  assumed  to  have  existed  behind  the  name  of 
Moses. 

Students  of  the  early  Jewish  writings  now  generally  rec- 
ognize their  legendary  character,  and  that  the  patriarchs  or 
fathers  of  the  race,  as  there  described,  represent  tribes  and  not 
individuals.  Read  in  this  light  these  narratives  give  an  in- 
teresting account  of  the  migrations  of  the  early  clans,  and 
of  their  efforts  to  find  a  suitable  habitation  for  their  people. 
These  migrations  are  those  of  a  nomadic  and  pastoral  people 
from  the  desert  regions  of  Arabia  into  the  richer  .and  more 
variagated  country  of  Palestine.  In  his  lectures  on  The  Early 
Poetry  of  Israel  in  its  Physical  and  Social  Origins,  George 
Adam  Smith  says  that  this  poetry,  embedded  in  the  early  Jew- 
ish writings,  reflects  many  of  the  phases  of  this  migration  from 
an  arid  to  a  fertile  region.  "  According  to  all  the  traditions 
of  Israel,"  is  Smith's  remark,  "the  forefathers  of  the  people 
came  up  from  the  Arabian  desert  into  possession  of  the  fertile 
lands  of  Syria ;  and  in  common  with  the  early  prose  narratives 
the  poetry  reflects  every  phase  in  the  change  of  physical  en- 
vironment through  which  such  a  passage  necessarily  brought 
them,  every  stage  in  the  economic  and  social  developments 
which  it  involved." 

The  primitive  desert  habitat,  and  the  migration  to  a  more 
attractive  region,  left  their  mark  on  the  history  of  this  people 
throughout  their  career,  as  recorded  in  their  sacred  writings. 
Their  customs  and  their  institutions,  the  manner  in  which  they 
regarded  civilization,  and  their  attitude  towards  religion  and 
its  rites,  were  in  no  small  degree  influenced  by  their  early 
history  as  a  people  of  the  desert.  In  their  religion,  as  in  their 

[299] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

poetry,  were  reflected  "the  desert  circumstances  and  shep- 
herd life;  the  desert  tropes  and  figures;  the  desert  theoph- 
anies;  every  phase  of  the  inevitable  transition  to  agriculture 
on  a  fertile  soil  with  its  effects  on  the  nomad's  appetite  and 
imagination ;  the  long  survival  of  the  nomadic  habits  and  tem- 
pers; the  purely  tribal  ethics  and  interests,  the  ferility  of 
the  tribe,  its  genealogies,  its  pride  and  its  hatreds,  its  loyalties 
and  sympathies,  its  relentlessness  to  enemies,  its  savage  scorn 
and  exultations;  and,  not  least,  all  the  nomad's  strange 
silence. ' ' 

It  is  impossible  to  ignore  the  suggestion  that  these  early 
experiences  of  the  Hebrews  had  a  large  influence  on  the  de- 
velopment of  their  religion,  and  more  especially  on  their  con- 
ception of  God  as  one,  and  as  intimately  their  own  protector 
and  guardian.  It  is  a  most  suggestive  fact  that  the  only  two 
distinctly  and  unequivocally  monotheistic  religions  came  out 
of  the  Arabian  desert,  and  from  very  nearly  the  same  part  of 
it.  While  it  cannot  be  assumed  that  a  desert  region  has  any- 
thing especially  religious  about  it  or  that  it  must  tend  towards 
a  monistic  conception  of  nature  and  life,  yet  it  cannot  be 
doubted  that  such  an  experience  for  a  people  as  the  desert  af- 
forded had  a  concentration  of  interest,  an  absorbing  attrac- 
tion to  the  central  facts  of  life,  and  an  unitary  direction  of 
thought  to  single  impressions  of  the  phenomena  of  nature, 
that  as  a  whole  facilitated  the  conception  of  the  underlying 
causes  of  the  world  and  of  life  as  one,  and  as  personal  in  its 
nature.  No  other  people  than  these  of  Arabia  seem  to  have 
had  an  experience  of  the  same  limited  nature  or  such  as  to 
direct  attention  to  the  unitary  character  of  the  world  known 
to  them.  In  all  other  lands  where  great  religions  originated 
the  phenomenal  world  appeared  in  far  more  variagated  forms, 

[300] 


THE   SOCIAL    EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

and  as  suggesting  a  diversified  cause  or  causes  behind  the  ap- 
pearances it  presents.  Certainly,  however  much  or  however 
little  the  desert  may  have  done  for  religion,  we  cannot  but  be 
impressed  with  the  fact  that  the  two  primitive  monotheistic 
religions  came  from  the  great  desert  region  of  Arabia. 

When  we  compare  Arabia  with  India,  the  barrenness  and 
monotony  of  the  one  with  the  richness  and  diversity  of  the 
other;  and  then  reflect  that  the  great  monotheisms  originated 
in  the  one  region  and  the  richest  polytheisms  in  the  other, 
we  may  have  cause  for  serious  pondering  on  the  problems  thus 
presented.  It  cannot  be  assumed,  as  was  done  by  Buckle,  that 
the  desert  and  its  peculiar  phenomena  have  led  to  the  pro- 
duction of  a  monotheistic  faith;  but  the  social  conditions  in- 
duced by  such  a  land  as  Arabia  may  favor  the  conception 
of  the  cause  of  the  world  as  one  and  indivisible.  Arabian  life 
throughout  the  history  of  that  peninsula  has  been  tribal  almost 
wholly ;  and,  as  we  have  already  had  occasion  to  recognize, 
the  tendency  in  the  tribe  is  to  the  acceptance  of  a  tribal  chief 
and  a  tribal  god.  Whether  that  god  is  a  totem  plant  or  animal, 
a  great  ancestral  founder  of  the  tribe  or  a  being  of  a  powerful 
natural  manifestation  in  sky  or  earth,  he  is  very  likely  to  be 
one  and  alone.  When  tribes  are  welded  together,  when  some- 
thing of  the  nature  of  a  state  comes  into  existence,  in  so  far  as 
desert  conditions  permit  of  such  a  unity,  the  unitary  concep- 
tion first  finding  expression  in  the  tribe  is  continued  and  inten- 
sified. The  god  of  the  tribe  then  becomes  a  greater  totem,  a 
more  devoted  guardian  of  his  people,  a  more  kindly  and  effi- 
cient protector  of  their  interests.  What  the  totem  was  to  the 
tribe,  and  what  the  guardian  ancestral  father  was  to  the  patri- 
archal family,  that  was  Yahweh  to  the  Hebrews  and  Allah 
to  the  Mohammedans.  Regarded  in  this  manner,  it  is  not  quite 

[301] 


THE   SOCIAL    EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

surprising  that  the  two  desert  peoples  came  to  believe  in  one 
god,  and  to  regard  themselves  as  chosen  by  him  as  his  own 
especial  favorites. 

Any  attempt  to  prove  that  the  traditional  Moses  was  the 
originator  of  monotheism,  even  as  regards  the  Hebrews,  is  but 
a  futile  speculation  or  the  result  of  sectarian  presuppositions. 
The  Hebrew  writings  themselves  indicate  rather  definitely  that 
this  belief  was  the  result  of  a  long-continued  process  of  growth, 
that  it  fluctuated  from  age  to  age,  that  it  was  only  at  first  ac- 
cepted by  a  few  of  the  more  zealously  religious  men  of  the 
nation,  and  that  it  required  centuries  of  exhortation,  discus- 
sion and  protest  to  bring  the  people  to  its  general  acceptance, 
which  did  not  occur  until  many  years  after  the  exile  and  the 
return.  The  prophets  were  as  voices  crying  alone  in  the 
wilderness,  insisting  upon  the  oneness  of  God,  that  Israel  had 
been  chosen  of  him,  and  that  he  alone  was  real  as  a  divine 
being.  After  many  centuries  of  their  exhortations  and  incisive 
protests  the  nation  came  to  their  way  of  thinking.  It  would 
seem,  therefore,  that  even  to  the  Hebrews,  called  emphatically 
the  people  of  one  God,  there  was  no  natural  affinity  for  that 
idea,  no  inevitable  demand  for  the  worship  of  a  unique  and 
solitary  divinity. 

Ill 

Probably  it  will  never  be  possible  to  state  in  emphatic 
terms  the  causes  resulting  in  the  acceptance  of  monotheism. 
The  originating  causes  lie  in  the  background  of  pre-history, 
in  that  far-off  time  when  the  nations  were  forming,  when  as 
yet  there  was  no  history  and  no  growth  of  definite  tradition. 
In  the  nature  of  their  habitat,  in  the  psychology  of  the  race 
itself,  in  the  character  of  the  life  they  came  to  live  and  the 

[302] 


THE   SOCIAL    EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

ethical  principles  they  accepted,  and  not  the  less  in  the  long 
line  of  heroic  souls  who  represented  a  developing  idea,  and 
adhered  steadfastly  to  it,  are  we  to  look  for  the  originating 
causes  of  the  faith  in  one  God.  Evidently,  such  causes,  in  their 
diversity,  their  illusiveness,  their  subtlety,  and  their  intimate 
oneness  with  the  life  of  the  nation  itself,  cannot  be  put  into 
definite  propositions.  Therefore,  we  are  not  able  to  state  how 
or  when  the  idea  of  monotheism  came  to  the  Hebrews  or  to 
any  other  people.  We  must  be  content  with  saying  that  these 
causes  were  less  individual  than  social,  that  they  did  not  spring 
from  a  single  brain;  but  were  the  product  of  ages  of  human 
experience. 

When  we  contrast  the  religions  of  Arabia  with  those  of 
India,  we  are  compelled  to  recognize  the  wide  variation  be- 
tween them,  and  that  there  is  a  divergence  corresponding,  in 
no  small  degree,  to  the  differences  in  their  environment,  and 
to  the  character  of  the  experiences  of  the  two  races.  The 
richness  and  diversity  of  the  one  environment,  and  the  poverty 
and  sameness  of  the  other,  seem  to  be  intimately  reflected  in 
their  religion  and  in  their  ethics.  When  we  recognize  that  this 
diversity  is  one  of  temperament  and  quality  in  the  lives  of  the 
two  peoples,  we  have  some  clue  to  the  variation  in  their  beliefs 
and  their  rituals.  All  the  more  emphatically  does  this  con- 
trast stand  out  before  us,  when  we  consider  the  fact  that  the 
Hebrews  left  the  desert  at  an  early  time,  and  migrated  into  a 
rich  diversified  land,  with  a  corresponding  result  on  their 
religion.  Perhaps  it  was  this  very  fact,  their  frequent  con- 
tact with  other  peoples,  and  their  more  mythological  and 
imaginative  religion,  which  made  it  so  very  difficult  for  them 
to  confine  their  faith  to  the  one  God  they  had  come  to  know 
in  the  desert.  In  this  respect  it  is  interesting  to  compare  the 
history  of  Mohammedanism  with  that  of  the  Hebrew  faith. 

[303] 


THE   SOCIAL    EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

When  Mohammed  proclaimed  that  there  is  no  God  but  Allah, 
he  asserted  what  the  desert  had  taught  him,  and  what  the 
lives  of  his  people  had  made  possible  of  proclamation  and  ac- 
ceptance. The  same  faith  in  the  beginning  seems  to  have 
been  that  of  the  Hebrews,  but  because  of  their  migration  away 
from  the  desert,  it  took  them  a  thousand  years  or  more  to  ac- 
cept this  faith  in  confidence  and  assurance. 

We  may  query  why  a  people  of  such  intellectual  calibre  as 
the  Greeks,  with  such  a  gift  for  philosophy  and  for  high 
thinking,  should  not  have  come  at  a  very  early  period  to  the 
acceptance  of  monotheism.  In  more  than  one  direction  they 
seemed  likely  to  reach  a  unitary  conception  of  life  and  of  the 
world,  and  therefore  to  come  to  the  belief  in  one  God.  Plato 
and  the  other  thinkers  reached  this  idea  theoretically;  and 
sometimes  the  belief  in  Zeus  or  another  god,  seemed  leading 
to  this  conception.  With  them,  as  with  the  Hindus  and  other 
peoples,  the  tendency  was  towards  the  recognition  of  one  or 
another  god  as  concentrating  in  himself  all  the  qualities  of 
the  whole  pantheon.  The  worshipper,  whatever  the  god  to 
whom  at  the  moment  he  was  offering  sacrifice  or  prayer,  re- 
garded him  as  if  he  alone  existed.  In  this  sense  all  the  higher 
religions  were  monotheistic;  and  the  several  gods  were  no 
more  than  attributes  or  qualities  of  the  one  Universal  Being. 
It  was  with  this  meaning  that  Brahmanism  believed  in  the 
Eternal  Self,  of  whom  all  men  and  gods  are  but  manifesta- 
tions or  intimately  related  as  of  the  same  nature.  However, 
in  India,  Babylonia,  Greece,  Egypt,  and  Rome,  the  diversities 
of  nature  and  life  made  too  strong  an  appeal  to  the  human 
mind  to  allow  of  a  concentration  of  attention  on  the  unity 
of  nature  and  life. 

Great  as  was  the  influence  of  the  migration  of  peoples, 
and  of  the  diffusion  of  ideas  and  beliefs,  the  ancient  religions 

[304] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

grew  up  to  an  extent  isolated  from  each  other.  If  these  two 
causes  had  a  great  effect  on  the  later  stages  of  their  develop- 
ment, this  was  not  the  case  in  the  earlier  periods,  when  they 
were  in  the  process  of  formation.  At  that  time  they  were 
most  emphatically  isolated  from  each  other  and  they  grew 
out  of,  and  represented,  the  tribal  life  in  its  most  distinctive 
qualities  and  characteristics.  To  a  very  large  degree  this  has 
been  true  of  the  whole  of  the  history  of  some  nations  and  their 
religions.  This  was  true  of  the  Chinese,  the  Hindus,  the  Baby- 
lonians, and  the  Egyptians.  None  of  these  peoples  were  quite 
apart  from  the  rest  of  the  world  or  developed  their  religions 
in  utter  isolation.  Even  the  Chinese,  more  truly  isolated  for 
many  centuries  than  any  other  people  of  the  ancient  world, 
were  by  no  means  wholly  so,  though  they  did  not  come  into 
definite  relations  with  the  more  western  nations. 

In  the  study  of  the  ancient  religions,  as  in  that  of  social 
and  political  institutions,  we  are  compelled  to  recognize  the 
fundamental  fact  that  the  individual  was  born  into  his  re- 
ligion, that  he  had  no  choice  as  to  the  ritual  he  should  use  or 
as  to  the  religion  with  which  he  was  connected ;  but  these  were 
determined  for  him  by  his  racial  inheritance  and  by  his  family 
associations.  In  his  Ancient  Law  Henry  Maine  stated  very 
definitely  this  fact,  when  he  said  that  in  ancient  society  the 
position  of  the  individual  was  determined  by  status.  It  was 
one  of  the  greatest  of  all  human  revolutions  when  the  indi- 
vidual came  to  have  the  right  to  choose  for  himself  to  what 
ritual  he  should  accord  his  acceptance,  and  to  what  religious 
fraternity  he  should  owe  his  alliance.  As  in  the  case  of  most 
revolutions  this  one  came  about  very  slowly  and  it  was  only 
when  it  had  been  fully  accomplished  that  it  was  recognized 
as  having  been  revolutionary  in  its  nature. 

[305] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF  RELIGION 

IV 

Another  fact  of  much  significance  is  to  be  recognized,  if 
we  would  understand  the  full  meaning  of  religion  as  a  phase 
of  the  evolution  of  civilization.  Some  religions  of  the  ancient 
time  are  yet  alive,  and  others  have  long  since  ceased  to  exist. 
One  of  the  most  remarkable  of  all  the  religions  in  this  respect 
is  Judaism,  which  reaches  back  to  the  prehistoric  time,  and  yet 
is  full  of  vigor  at  the  present  day.  No  other  religion  has  ever 
passed  through  such  vicissitudes,  been  persecuted  to  so  great 
an  extent,  and  yet  has  thriven  in  spite  of  the  ghetto  and  the 
most  perverse  social  ostracism  through  many  centuries.  In 
a  less  marked  degree  has  been  the  fate  of  the  religion  of  Zo- 
roaster, which  still  survives  in  India,  though  with  greatly 
diminished  numbers.  Its  followers,  however,  rank  high  in 
culture,  morality,  and  nobility  of  living. 

Several  of  the  great  ancient  religions  have  ceased  to  exist, 
including  those  of  Egypt,  Greece  and  Borne,  together  with  those 
of  the  Celts  and  Teutons.  Other  religions  disappeared  from 
the  knowledge  of  the  western  world,  and  when  they  came  to 
be  known  again  the  surprise  was  very  great.  For  many  cen- 
turies the  religion  of  Babylonia  had  almost  passed  out  of  the 
knowledge  of  men,  buried  under  the  drifting  sands  which 
had  overwhelmed  the  cities  where  it  once  lived  with  great  bril- 
liancy. In  the  last  century  or  more  it  has  been  revealed  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  world  once  again  through  the  uncovering  of 
the  monuments,  with  their  cuneiform  inscriptions,  which  re- 
corded the  history,  the  laws  and  the  religious  rituals  and  be- 
liefs of  this  ancient  people.  Not  less  great  was  the  surprise 
when  the  religion  of  Egypt  once  more  came  to  the  light,  and 
all  its  striking  characteristics,  in  many  respects  differing  from 
those  of  any  other  land,  were  brought  to  our  knowledge.  Much 

[306] 


THE   SOCIAL    EVOLUTION-  OF   KELIGION 

that  we  should  be  glad  to  know  escapes  us  as  regards  many 
phases  of  Egyptian  religion  and  history;  but  it  would  appear 
jthat  the  great  essentials  have  been  deciphered,  and  the  history 
in  a  fairly  clear  outline  revealed  to  us. 

If  the  religions  of  India,  China  and  Japan  continued  to 
live,  and  were  in  some  degree  known  for  many  centuries,  it 
has  not  been  until  the  last  century  or  two  that  our  knowledge 
of  them  has  been  in  any  degree  extensive  and  intimate.  Dur- 
ing the  past  century  their  sacred  books  have  become  known  to 
the  western  world,  and  they  have  been  translated  into  many  of 
the  European  languages. 

In  addition  to  this  increased  knowledge  of  the  great 
religions  of  the  past,  and  of  those  which  have  survived  to  our 
own  day,  we  have  gained  a  knowledge  of  the  religions  of  bar- 
barian and  savage  peoples  in  every  part  of  the  world.  As  yet 
we  have  no  intimate  acquaintance  with  many  tribes  and 
peoples  on  all  the  continents;  but  a  vast  mass  of  information 
has  been  brought  to  light  during  the  last  half -century  in  regard 
to  the  religions  of  the  aborigines  of  Africa,  America,  Oceania, 
Asia,  and  many  an  island  around  the  wide  world.  In  the  re- 
ports of  travellers,  missionaries,  ethnologists,  and  other  scien- 
tific investigators,  a  vast  body  of  knowledge  has  been 
accumulated,  which  is  being  intimately  studied,  weighed, 
assorted,  and  presented  in  systematic  scientific  interpretations 
of  the  origin  and  early  developments  of  religion  in  all  its  varied 
phases.  These  studies  have  added  greatly  to  our  knowledge  of 
the  meaning  of  religion  as  a  social  force,  as  an  attempt  to 
explain  the  origin  of  the  universe  and  man,  and  as  a  moral 
incentive  and  an  ethical  stimulus.  At  the  same  time,  it  has 
given  us  a  larger  and  truer  insight  into  the  psychological 
causes  operating  to  give  religion  its  widely  varied  develop- 
ments. If  the  definitions  as  to  the  nature  of  religion  which 

[307] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF  EELIGION 

are  usually  given,  even  in  works  seeking  to  interpret  religion 
in  a  scientific  spirit  are  by  no  means  broad  enough,  yet  it  has 
become  certain  that  its  influence  in  all  ages  has  been  very 
great. 

Such  studies  have  made  it  known  to  us  that  the  early 
religions  were  not  concerned  with  beliefs,  but  with  rituals. 
They  did  not  present  creeds,  but  ceremonials  and  sacrifices. 
In  this  respect  the  earlier  religions,  including  all  those  known 
to  the  ancient  world,  were  of  this  type,  concerned  with  conduct 
and  not  with  belief.  Salvation  in  the  thought  of  early  man  was 
not  the  result  of  what  one  believed  about  God,  but  what  cere- 
monials one  observed  and  what  sacrifices  one  offered.  To  no 
small  extent  that  remains  true  to-day  in  regard  to  all  but  a  few 
of  the  most  developed  phases  of  religion,  even  in  Christian 
lands.  It  is  emphatically  the  case  in  India,  and  with  what 
there  appears  as  the  most  widely  spread  religious  develop- 
ments. Creeds  there  may  be,  but  it  is  ritual  and  ascetic 
practices  which  count. 

Another  marked  difference  between  early  and  ancient  re- 
ligions and  those  of  our  own  day  is  to  be  found  in  their  attitude 
in  regard  to  progress.  Truly  orthodox  religions  everywhere 
jdo  not  accept  the  principle  of  progress,  for  they  assert  the  con- 
viction that  the  past  is  better  than  the  present,  that  God  once 
revealed  himself  to  the  world,  and  that  no  fresh  revelations  are 
to  be  anticipated  in  the  present  or  the  future.  Almost  with- 
out exception  the  great  ancient  religions  looked  back  to  a  hap- 
pier past,  a  paradise  which  has  disappeared,  a  golden  age 
which  no  longer  exists,  or  to  a  time  when  God  walked  with 
men  in  the  cool  of  the  evening  or  sat  with  them  in  the  door  of 
their  tent  conversing  freely.  To  the  same  import  is  the  belief 
that  in  the  early  time  God  revealed  himself  to  men,  and  that 
remnants  or  survivals  of  that  primitive  revelation  are  to  be 

[308] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

found  underlying  all  that  is  good  and  beautiful  in  the  religions 
of  savage  and  barbarian  peoples.  In  a  word,  this  conception 
of  religion  is  backward-looking,  facing  the  past  and  not  the 
brighter  time  that  now  is  or  that  which  is  to  come. 

On  the  other  hand,  we  may  find  many  religious  develop- 
ments which  are  progressive,  which  do  not  look  back  to  the 
past,  but  which  face  the  future  with  hope  and  expectation. 
Such  religions  do  not  believe  that  the  truth  has  been  exhausted 
or  that  religion  has  as  yet  reached  the  utmost  of  which  it  is 
capable.  They  believe  with  John  Robinson  that  more  truth  is 
yet  to  break  forth  from  the  revealing  word  of  life.  They  also 
agree  with  Emerson,  that  man  is  not  yet  old  enough  by  a  thou- 
pand  years  to  write  a  creed.  They  do  not  look  to  a  paradise 
behind,  but  to  a  nobler  life  for  man  in  the  future.  They  are 
not  much  concerned  about  the  old  beliefs,  but  are  deeply  solici- 
tous as  to  the  most  helpful  truth  man  can  acquire  at  the  present 
time.  Those  who  take  this  attitude  in  regard  to  religion  are 
usually  known  as  heretics ;  but  it  is  probable  that  they  are  the 
true  prophets  of  the  coming  time. 

In  the  unfolding  of  the  history  of  religion  from  the  earli- 
est time,  we  find  that,  on  the  whole,  in  its  higher  types  it  has 
progressed.  While  it  has  remained  too  often  unmoved  by  the 
advances  of  the  world  about  it,  being  more  interested  in  retain- 
ing the  old  rituals  and  beliefs  than  in  serving  the  higher  inter- 
ests of  mankind,  yet  there  has  been  progress,  and  a  progress  that 
is  very  great  from  primitive  animism  and  polytheism  to  the  most 
developed  manifestations  of  the  religious  spirit  in  our  day. 
There  has  often  been  retrogression,  and  some  phases  of  the  most 
abject  degeneration,  yet  the  general  tendency  has  been  upward, 
and  toward  what  is  more  ethical  and  rational.  Even  now  there 
is  frequent  reversion  to  what  is  magical  and  superstitious,  to 
dark  and  forbidding  beliefs,  and  to  ceremonials  which  are  de- 

[309] 


THE   SOCIAL    EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

grading  and  gross;  but  the  general  march  is  sunward;  and  to- 
wards a  broader  acceptance  of  what  will  make  for  the  elevation 
of  man. 

What  is  claimed  to  be  a  new  interest  in  relgion,  about  which 
much  is  being  written — it  being  claimed  that  no  one  is  now  criti- 
cal of  its  tendencies,  and  that  there  are  no  doubters  and  no  skep- 
tics— means  that  the  occult,  the  mystical,  and  the  supernatural 
have  been  revived  in  no  inconsiderable  degree.  Credulity,  su- 
perstition, and  fanaticism,  if  they  do  not  by  any  means  control 
the  religion  of  the  day,  have  over  it  a  very  large  dominion.  Even 
palmistry,  astrology  and  spiritism,  once  thought  to  have  forever 
disappeared  from  the  beliefs  of  modern  men,  have  their  numer- 
ous and  ardent  advocates.  Rationalism  is  condemned,  science  is 
ostracized,  sanity  in  philosophy  no  longer  meets  with  approval ; 
and  these  are  replaced  by  vitalism,  an  exaggerated  idealism,  and 
an  assumption  that  psychic  research  is  to  give  us  a  new  faith  and 
a  fresh  hope. 

Whatever  there  may  be  of  permanent  value  in  these  ten- 
dencies, how  is  it  possible  to  conclude  that  they  are  more  than 
passing  phases  of  the  life  of  our  time !  The  history  of  the  past 
assures  us  that  the  occult  and  the  mystical  are  only  temporary 
phases  of  a  religion  which  abides  through  all  the  centuries.  The 
rationalism  which  is  now  tabued  will  inevitably  come  back  in  a 
great  revival,  we  may  be  assured.  Religion  divorced  from  rea- 
son and  from  science  cannot  be  other  than  credulous,  supersti- 
tious and  fanatical.  However  attractive  the  tendency  to  the 
occult  may  be  for  the  moment  to  many  persons,  it  has  not  the 
qualities  which  are  permanent. 

It  is  often  claimed  that  this  passing  charm  of  the  occult  is  a 
reaction  against  the  materialism  of  science;  but  it  must  not  be 
forgotten  that  there  may  be  a  revolt  against  the  occult — and  one 
that  will  carry  rationalism  and  science  to  heights  they  have  never 

[310] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF  RELIGION 

hitherto  reached  in  the  history  of  religion.  Fascinating  as  the 
mystical  may  be  to  those  who  come  under  its  attractive  influence, 
it  has  never  had  other  than  a  fleeting  hold  upon  the  great  major- 
ity of  mankind.  We  have  gone  too  far  in  the  direction  of  a 
clear-thinking  view  of  the  world  to  give  other  than  a  passing  op- 
portunity to  the  occult,  whatever  the  name  by  which  it  may  be 
known.  Its  power  is  steadily  waning,  however  much  it  may 
seem  to  be  in  the  ascendency  at  this  moment ;  and  it  can  come  in 
our  time  only  to  a  spasmodic  and  temporary  rejuvenescence. 
The  day  for  these  phases  of  religion — however  great  their  appeal 
for  the  passing  day — cannot  be  other  than  temporary,  and  as  a 
mere  fashion  of  the  hour. 

Great  and  rapid  changes  in  the  nature  of  religion  are  taking 
place  at  the  present  time.  Never  before  in  its  whole  history  has 
it  been  at  such  a  stage  of  revolutionary  progress  as  in  our  own 
day.  This  is  in  part  due  to  the  great  advance,  and  general  ac- 
ceptance, of  science;  and  to  the  wide-reaching  influence  of  its 
facts  and  its  methods  of  investigation,  which  have  been  carried 
over  to  the  study  of  religion.  Never  before  has  it  been  possible 
to  regard  religion  as  a  phase  of  the  progress  of  culture  and  civili- 
zation, and  to  study  it  in  the  same  spirit  in  which  we  study  a 
flower  or  a  star,  a  chemical  element  or  the  processes  of  social  gen- 
esis. We  are  now  able  to  stand  away  from  it,  to  regard  it,  as  it 
were,  in  perspective,  with  an  aloofness  that  permits  of  dissever- 
ing ourselves  from  all  concern  as  to  what  belief  or  unbelief  may 
mean  with  regard  to  our  individual  destiny. 

One  of  the  newest  of  all  the  sciences,  that  of  Comparative 
Religion,  has  grown  up  as  the  result  of  this  new  method  in  the 
study  of  religion,  which  permits  of  its  investigation  in  the  whole 
range  of  its  evolution,  and  with  absolute  freedom.  Most  of  the 
works  which  have  so  far  appeared  in  connection  with  this  new 
science  have  been  marked  with  more  or  less  of  the  sectarian 

[311] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

spirit,  and  have  felt  it  necessary  to  bow  to  the  dictates  of  Chris- 
tianity, as  if  the  writers  dare  not  speak  their  minds  with  abso- 
lute freedom.  However,  the  tendency  is  strongly  towards  re- 
garding religion  as  in  itself  interesting,  of  great  importance  to 
an  understanding  of  the  evolution  of  civilization,  and  as 
demanding  the  strict  application  to  it  of  the  methods  and  spirit 
of  science.  It  does  not  follow  that  the  investigator  must  reject 
all  religion,  in  order  to  undertake  such  a  study  in  the  scientific 
spirit,  or,  on  the  other  hand,  that  he  should  apologize  to  any  of 
the  higher  religions  for  his  devotion  to  the  demand  for  the  truth, 
and  the  whole  of  the  truth,  in  regard  to  any  and  every  religion, 
past  and  present. 

The  most  important  of  the  changes  which  have  come  into  the 
religion  of  our  day  is  the  increase  of  our  knowledge  in  regard  to 
all  the  religions  of  the  past,  from  those  of  primitive  man  to  those 
which  are  the  most  advanced.  We  may  now  study  the  sacred 
books  of  all  the  peoples  which  have  produced  works  of  that 
nature,  and  these  include  the  Japanese,  Chinese,  Hindus,  Per- 
sians, Babylonians,  Arabs,  Hebrews,  Egyptians,  and  Christians. 
Several  other  advanced  peoples,  which  have  no  books  which  may 
be  called  sacred,  such  as  the  Polynesians,  Syrians,  Greeks,  Ro- 
mans, Celts,  and  Teutons,  as  well  as  others,  have  given  the  world 
rituals,  sacred  songs,  mythologies  or  epical  poems,  which  are  of 
great  importance  in  connection  with  the  evolution  of  religion. 
All  of  these  may  now  be  studied,  and  are  included  in  the  materi- 
als investigated  by  the  science  of  Comparative  Religion.  The 
very  idea  of  comparing  all  this  vast  mass  of  traditional  or  writ- 
ten materials,  coming  from  every  part  of  the  world  and  from  all 
ages,  is  quite  new  in  the  history  of  religion ;  and  is  giving  it  a 
fresh  meaning,  as  well  as  bringing  us  a  far  broader  conception 
of  what  it  has  represented  in  the  history  of  mankind. 

This  new  knowledge,  which  has  been  coming  to  us  during 

[312] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF  RELIGION 

the  last  two  centuries,  and  more  especially  during  the  last  half- 
century,  has  immensely  widened  the  conception  of  religion,  and 
our  outlook  upon  it  as  a  phase  of  human  culture.  In  one  direc- 
tion it  has  greatly  developed  the  work  of  the  Christian  mission- 
ary, made  him  familiar,  if  he  has  so  chosen,  with  the  nature  of 
the  religion  or  religions  he  has  to  face  in  his  field  of  labor.  It 
has  prepared  him  for  appreciating,  and  for  apprehending,  what 
religion  means  to  savage  and  semi-civilized  peoples.  If  his  field 
of  labor  is  in  a  land  where  exists  one  of  the  great  religions  of  the 
world,  such  as  Brahmanism,  Buddhism  or  Islam,  he  may  go  to 
his  task  equipped  with  an  intimate  knowledge  of  its  origin  and 
development,  its  ritual  and  its  creed.  Even  if  he  is  to  labor  in 
the  heart  of  Africa  or  in  some  remote  island  region,  it  is  more 
than  probable  that  he  may  secure  before  he  goes  a  large  acquaint- 
ance with  the  customs,  folk-lore,  mythology,  and  religion  of  the 
tribe  amongst  whom  he  is  to  carry  on  his  work.  He  may  know 
the  religion  of  Australia,  of  the  Andamans  and  of  Borneo,  of  the 
primitive  races  of  North  and  South  America,  before  he  sets  forth 
on  his  work  of  religious  propaganda.  Whatever  advantage 
there  may  be  in  this  knowledge,  it  is  owing  to  the  widely  de- 
veloped interest  in  all  phases  of  religion  which  has  characterized 
the  ethnological  investigations  of  the  last  century. 

There  can  be  no  question  that  this  remarkable  recent  ad- 
vance in  our  knowledge  of  the  evolution  and  history  of  religion 
has  developed,  and  is  developing,  most  important  results,  the  full 
effects  of  which  will  appear  only  in  the  future.  One  effect  is 
that  all  religions  have  been  cast,  as  it  were,  into  the  melting  pot, 
and  are  being  refined  and  purified;  at  least,  this  is  true  of  all 
the  more  advanced  religions.  Another  effect  is,  that  the  cruder 
and  least  developed  are  rapidly  disintegrating  and  disappearing. 
In  some  respects  this  is  to  be  regretted,  for  we  should  be  glad  to 
have  more  knowledge  of  some  of  them  than  we  have  as  yet  been 

[313] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

able  to  secure,  so  rapidly  are  they  passing  out  of  existence,  as  the 
result  of  their  contact  with  the  higher  civilizations  of  the  world. 
We  would  give  much  to  know  the  true  nature,  in  much  of  their 
details,  in  regard  to  the  religions  of  Mexico,  Central  America, 
and  Peru.  The  fierce  onslaught  made  upon  them  by  Christian 
nations  has  forever  deprived  us  of  any  intimate  acquaintance 
with  those  characteristic  American  religions,  a  knowledge  of 
which  would  enable  us  more  clearly  to  understand  the  civiliza- 
tions with  which  they  were  connected,  and  to  comprehend  more 
definitely  whither  the  less  advanced  aboriginal  peoples  were 
tending  at  the  time  of  the  discovery  of  America. 


Now  that  all  religions  have  been  brought  out  into  the  open 
field  of  knowledge,  and  all  the  great  sacred  books  of  the  world 
may  be  read  and  studied  by  whomsoever  will,  since  the  most 
characteristic  of  them  have  been  translated  into  English  and 
other  European  languages,  some  important  results  are  following. 
One  result  is  that  each  of  the  great  religions  of  other  countries 
has  proven  attractive  to  a  greater  or  lesser  number  of  persons 
in  European  and  American  lands.  The  religions  of  India  have 
given  us  Theosophy,  a  wide  reading  of  the  works  of  Babin- 
dranath  Tagore,  and  an  eager  study,  on  the  part  of  a  consider- 
able number  of  persons,  of  the  sacred  books  of  that  country.  It 
may  be  that  no  great  number  of  persons  have  been  attracted  to 
Theosophy,  but  there  can  be  no  question  that  it  has  had  an  in- 
fluence by  no  means  insignificant  on  the  tendencies  of  modern 
religion.  The  conception  of  metempsychosis  has  proven  attrac- 
tive to  a  considerable  number  of  persons  who  have  not  connected 
themselves  with  the  Theosophical  movement,  for  the  reason  that 
it  gets  rid  of  the  arbitrary  conceptions  connected  with  the  ortho- 

[314] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION  OF   RELIGION 

dox  manner  of  interpreting  the  nature  of  the  future  life  or, 
rather,  of  the  processes  by  which  the  destiny  of  the  individual  is 
determined.  The  notion  that  the  future  brings  about  a  sharp 
division  between  the  good  and  the  bad,  as  determined  by  conven- 
tional, ethical  standards,  and  that  the  fate  of  the  individual  is 
forever  fixed  by  the  nature  of  his  beliefs  and  his  ritual  actions  in 
this  life,  has  become  repellent  to  a  no  inconsiderable  number  of 
persons ;  and  some  of  these  are  attracted  by  what  they  regard 
as  the  more  natural  conceptions  of  karma  and  methempsychosis. 
Here  the  future  fate  of  the  individual,  whether  under  Hinduism 
or  Buddhism,  is  determined  by  himself,  and  what  he  is,  what  he 
makes  himself  to  become  by  his  deeds,  and  determines  the  kind 
of  life  he  shall  live  when  he  comes  to  his  next  birth.  However 
low  in  the  scale  of  being  he  may  find  himself  as  the  result  of  his 
actions,  he  may  raise  himself  to  a  higher  stage  at  the  next 
rebirth,  if  he  seeks  to  obey  the  conditions  of  the  life  which  is 
now  his,  whether  that  of  plant,  animal  or  man. 

The  results  of  religious  contacts  in  the  last  century  have 
not  been  confined  to  western  lands,  but  have  effected  India, 
China,  and  most  other  oriental  countries.  Not  only  has  Hindu- 
ism been  led  to  seek  for  reforms  in  its  methods,  as  the  result  of 
contact  with  western  civilization;  but  there  have  grown  up  in 
India  several  distinctly  reform  movements,  all  of  which  are 
highly  interesting  and  suggestive  with  regard  to  the  future. 
These  include  the  Brahma  Samaj,.  with  its  several  branches  and 
offshoots.  These  have  sought  to  bring  Hinduism  back  to  its  purer 
phases  of  the  past,  to  rid  it  of  superstitions  and  mythologies, 
and  to  give  it  a  more  distinctly  ethical  and  a  monotheistic  inter- 
pretation. The  number  of  adherents  of  these  movements  has 
not  been  large,  in  proportion  to  the  whole  population  of  India; 
but  the  influences  leading  out  from  European  contacts  have  been 
much  wider-reaching  than  the  number  of  their  followers  would 

[315] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF  RELIGION 

indicate.  Evidently,  there  is  going  forward  in  India  a  revolu- 
tionary movement  as  concerns  religion,  partly  a  result  of  mis- 
sionary effort,  but  much  more  largely  the  product  of  intimate 
contact  with  western  culture  and  civilization.  As  yet  the  visible 
results  are  not  great,  but  they  are  likely  to  be  progressive,  and 
to  develop  far  more  rapidly  in  the  future. 

One  of  the  results  of  the  invasion  of  Mohammedanism  into 
Europe,  both  into  Spain  and  into  the  Balkan  region,  has  been  an 
intense  prejudice  against  it  in  Christian  lands.  The  long  and 
fierce  attempts  to  repel  it,  and  to  expel  it  from  Europe,  has 
awakened  every  possible  kind  and  degree  of  sectarian  hatred  and 
misconception.  This  hatred  and  this  jealousy  have  developed 
among  Christians  a  dislike  for  Islam  which  has  been  shown  to- 
wards no  other  religion ;  and  has  not  made  it  possible,  until  quite 
recently,  that  Mohammed  and  the  Koran  should  be  viewed  in 
any  favorable  light.  In  spite  of  this  distrust  and  this  hatred,  a 
considerable  number  of  Europeans  and  Americans  have  quite  re- 
cently been  drawn  to  Bahaism  and  the  teachings  of  Baha'u'llah. 
Abbas  Efendi,  a  most  venerable  old  man,  winsome  in  his  man- 
ner, speech  and  teaching,  has  visited  this  country  and  England, 
leaving  behind  him  a  gracious  memory.  Declaring  that  the 
Primal  Divinity  is  unknowable,  but  that  there  have  been  and  are 
various  manifestations  of  the  prophetic  spirit,  the  Bahais  teach 
that  the  Universal  intelligence  has  spoken,  and  speaks,  to  man- 
kind through  a  succession  of  prophets,  that  God  has  never  left 
himself  without  manifestations  of  his  reality  and  his  presence. 
What  was  material  in  Mohammed's  conceptions  of  the  future,  or 
what  has  been  interpreted  of  his  teaching  to  mean  a  material  hell 
and  heaven,  the  Bahaists  reject,  and  assert  that  these  are  mere 
shadows  of  the  spiritual  nature  of  the  future  life.  According 
to  their  teaching  revelation  never  ends,  and  God  is  ever  revealing 
himself.  The  unity  of  nature,  life  and  God  is  also  in  this  teach- 

[316] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OP  RELIGION 

ing.  What  most  attracts  westerners  to  this  new  religion,  how- 
ever, appears  to  be  at  once  its  lofty  spirituality  and  its  broad 
humanitarianism.  In  essence  it  is  a  progressive  and  a  reform 
movement,  teaching  that  men  everywhere  should  live  together 
harmoniously,  in  a  brotherly  spirit,  and  for  the  advancement 
of  the  great  common  interests  of  mankind.  Teaching  a  practi- 
cal socialism,  a  socialism  of  brotherhood  and  mutual  service,  the 
Bahaist  movement  seems  destined  to  have  a  considerable  influ- 
ence on  the  future  of  religion,  both  east  and  west. 

Other  religious  movements  which  have  sprung  up  in  recent 
years,  such  as  Christian  Science,  New  Thought,  Ethical  Culture, 
the  Modernist  development  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  the 
Progressive  Orthodoxy  of  Protestantism,  and  the  wide-spread 
revival  of  mysticism,  are  to  be  regarded,  in  one  degree  or  an- 
other, as  results  of  the  broadening  of  our  knowledge  of  the  past 
of  religion,  and  of  our  greatly  increased  acquaintance  with  the 
religions  of  the  eastern  lands.  The  sacred  books  of  Judaism  and 
Christianity  have  been  subjected  to  a  most  searching  investiga- 
tion, as  to  their  origin,  their  historical  character,  the  quality  of 
their  ethics  and  their  theology;  and  they  have  not  come  forth 
from  this  ordeal  as  they  were  when  the  testing  of  them  began. 
They  have  been,  in  no  small  measure,  placed  through  such  studies 
by  the  side  of  the  other  sacred  books  of  the  world,  and  subjected 
to  a  critical  comparison,  which  has  led  many  persons  to  the  con- 
clusion that  they  can  no  longer  be  held  as  in  their  nature  essen- 
tially different  from  the  other  works  of  the  same  type. 

These  various  tendencies  of  the  last  century  have  had  the 
effect  of  discrediting,  at  least  in  a  great  number  of  minds,  what- 
ever is  ecclesiastical  and  orthodox.  Even  orthodoxy  itself,  in  all 
the  western  churches  of  Christendom,  is  no  longer  what  it  was  a 
century  ago.  It  has  moderated  its  claims,  in  some  degree  has 
ceased  to  be  dogmatic,  has  developed  a  distrust  of  the  sovereignty 

[317] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION  OF   RELIGION 

of  God  as  a  spiritual  autocrat,  and  has  grown  more  tolerant  to- 
wards other  forms  of  belief  than  its  own.  Holding  largely  to 
Christianity,  in  western  countries  it  is  to  no  small  extent  in  a 
manner  no  longer  strict,  and  insistent  on  mere  belief  in  meta- 
physical creeds ;  but  even  in  the  most  orthodox  churches  there  is 
taught  the  immanence  of  God,  the  wide-open  mercy  Christ  offers 
the  offender  against  the  majesty  of  his  teachings,  and  a  sweet 
reasonableness  as  regards  what  is  essential  to  the  nature  of  re- 
ligion itself. 

When  we  view  the  developing  movements  of  civilization 
throughout  the  world,  what  we  must  recognize  is  the  drawing 
together  of  nations  as  the  result  of  the  extension  of  means  of 
communication  and  transportation.  Countries  that  were  a  few 
centuries  ago  quite  unknown  to  each  other  in  any  real  meaning 
of  the  word,  have  now  come  into  intimate  touch,  and  are  largely 
influencing  each  others'  interests  in  many  directions.  The  east 
and  the  west  have  been  brought  into  close  relations,  not  merely 
as  the  result  of  the  development  of  commerce,  but  because  of 
growing  intellectual  affinities.  Travel  has  brought  a  great  num- 
ber of  persons  into  a  genuine  acquaintance  with  other  lands ;  and 
all  that  is  best  in  the  arts  and  sciences,  the  literatures  and  cul- 
tures of  any  land  has  become  the  common  property  of  all  the 
world,  and  to  no  small  extent.  Japan  has  become  to-day  almost 
as  well  known  as  England,  and  in  many  respects  better  known 
than  Russia.  China  has  opened  its  resources  of  material,  and  its 
other  resources  of  intellectual,  riches  to  western  lands;  and  the 
old  antipathy  and  exclusiveness  are  wearing  away.  The  fact 
that  this  land  of  a  great  population  has  become  a  republic,  with 
promise  that  it  will  during  this  century  become  stable  and  pro- 
gressive, marks  a  vast  change  wrought  in  the  life  of  the  orient. 
India,  we  are  told,  is  seething  with  unrest,  and  aspiring  to  follow 
the  example  of  Japan  and  China;  but  proves  to  be  loyal  to  the 

[318] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION  OF  EELIGION 

west  and  to  its  deep-reaching  influences,  which  are  slowly  modi- 
fying the  civilization  of  that  peninsula,  and  in  many  directions. 
If  it  is  receiving  largely  from  the  west,  it  is  by  no  means  failing 
to  give  to  the  west  of  the  best  its  centuries  have  produced. 

In  the  nearer  lands  of  the  east  vast  changes  are  in  progress, 
with  the  building  of  railroads,  opening  of  canals,  increase  of 
trade,  and  penetration  of  world-travellers  and  world-commerce. 
Syria,  Mesopotamia,  Palestine,  Arabia,  Egypt,  Greece,  and  all 
the  Balkan  lands,  as  well  as  that  vast  continental  area  known  as 
Russia,  give  promise  of  far-reaching  changes  in  the  not  remote 
future;  and  of  their  being  opened  to  all  the  progressive  move- 
ments of  our  time.  If  they  have  received  much  from  the  more 
western  countries,  there  can  be  no  question  that  they  are  return- 
ing as  much  as  they  have  received  or  will  do  so  in  a  century  to 
come.  Russia  is  a  land  of  vast  possibilities,  and  we  may  not 
doubt  that  it  will  have  a  great  influence  on  the  future  of  man- 
kind, not  only  as  concerns  social  growth  and  literary  develop- 
ments, but  in  religious  evolution.  After  a  time  of  what  may 
prove  to  be  a  prolonged  revolutionary  struggle,  Russia  is  likely 
to  come  forward,  perhaps  before  this  century  ends,  as  one  of  the 
most  enlightened  and  progressive  countries  known  to  the  world. 
Its  religion  is  now  backward  and  superstitious,  but  it  is  possible 
that  in  this  respect  the  people  will  keep  pace  with  their  evolution 
of  a  truly  modern  social  and  political  life  for  the  whole  body  of 
the  people  under  a  genuinely  democratic  regime. 

What  we  see  taking  place  about  us  is,  that  religion  is  becom- 
ing emancipated  from  its  superstitions,  its  credulities,  and  its 
orthodoxies.  We  are  leaving  behind,  perhaps  too  slowly,  but 
very  surely,  the  results  due  to  the  inheritance  of  animism,  fetich- 
ism,  and  polytheism;  we  are  compelling  religion  to  stand  side 
by  side  with  science,  and  to  make  answer  to  the  newest  and  most 
assured  knowledge  man  possesses.  It  need  not  follow  that  re- 

[319] 


THE   SOCIAL    EVOLUTION   OF  KELIGION 

ligion  will  lose  any  of  the  deeper  meanings  which  have  made  it 
powerful  in  the  past  or  that  it  will  cease  to  guide  the  feet  or  to 
cheer  the  hearts  or  to  illumine  the  minds  of  men  in  the  time  to 
come. 

Men  throughout  the  world  have  refused  longer  to  accept 
the  dogma  of  the  divine  rights  of  kings,  or  they  will  soon  come  to 
do  so;  and  with  equal  certainty  they  will  refuse  to  accept 
the  divine  rights  of  sacred  books  or  the  authority  of  auto- 
cratic saviors.  The  conception  of  Jesus  as  a  Lord  belongs 
to  an  undemocratic  age.  His  own  preference,  according  to  one 
tradition,  was  to  call  himself  Friend, — the  friend  of  the  poor  and 
unfortunate,  and  the  friend  of  mankind.  Lord  Christ  and  Lord 
Buddha  are  titles  belonging  to  the  same  strata  of  aristocratic 
and  autocratic  social  conditions,  when  men  were  not  free,  when 
they  cringed  before  their  superiors,  and  when  they  dared  not 
speak  their  own  minds  or  lead  their  own  lives.  In  this  age  of 
equality  and  freedom,  when  democracy  is  beginning  to  dominate 
the  world,  lords  of  every  kind  are  out  of  place,  and  should  be 
banished  from  religion  as  from  politics  and  national  life,  from 
the  church  as  from  the  state. 

The  human  spirit  will  be  free,  and  every  man  and  woman 
will  dwell  in  the  house  of  his  or  her  own  mind,  as  in  a  castle  that 
cannot  be  invaded  arbitrarily  by  any  other.  We  shall  no  longer 
permit  pope  or  bishop  to  dictate  to  us  what  we  shall  believe,  and 
no  synod  or  congregation  can  be  permitted  arbitrarily  to  instruct 
the  individual  mind  in  regard  to  the  great  problems  of  destiny. 
The  day  of  the  lord  and  his  authority  has  gone  by  forever,  as  re- 
gards political  control  or  religious  conviction. 

At  the  present  time  there  is  a  demand  that  the  world  shall 
be  won  over  to  the  interests  of  democracy  and  peace;  and  it  is 
proposed  that  a  league  of  free  nations  shall  be  organized  to  pro- 
mote these  objects.  It  seems  probable  that  something  of  this 

[320] 


THE   SOCIAL    EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

nature  will  be  one  of  the  developments  of  the  near  future,  and 
that  the  nations  will  be  federated  together  for  the  promotion  of 
those  interests  which  they  have  in  common.  Democracy  has 
made  great  strides  forward  in  the  last  half-century,  and  it  is 
likely  to  win  ail  progressive  nations  to  itself  in  the  near  future. 
Nearly  all  peoples  are  demanding  this  form  of  government  and 
the  freedom  which  it  promotes.  It  is  the  governing  and  mili- 
tary classes  alone  which  do  not  favor  its  acceptance;  but  the 
rising  tide  of  working-class  demand  in  all  industrial  countries, 
it  would  seem,  will  soon  compel  the  acceptance  of  what  the  great 
mass  of  the  people  demand,  that  freedom,  the  ballot,  and  indus- 
trial equality  shall  be  secured  for  all;  and  these  ends  can  be 
reached  only  through  the  promotion  of  a  genuine  democracy. 
An  essential  to  the  promotion  of  democracy  and  equality  is  peace 
and  the  federation  of  the  nations,  in  order  that  the  interests  of 
all  men  and  women  shall  be  guaranteed.  While  it  may  be  possible 
that  humanitarian  desires,  and  the  craving  for  democratic  free- 
dom, may  anticipate  too  eagerly  the  advance  of  mankind  toward 
these  results  for  all,  yet  one  can  hardly  refrain  from  believing 
that  the  day  of  freedom  and  democracy  is  at  hand.  Many  a 
struggle  may  yet  be  necessary  to  their  being  secured  in  every 
part  of  the  world,  many  a  hard  fought  battle  may  come  before 
they  are  fully  attained ;  but  can  one  doubt  that  they  are  written 
in  the  destinies  of  mankind  in  the  not  remote  future? 

With  the  coming  of  democracy  and  peace  there  must  also 
come  a  great  modification  of  religion,  a  sloughing  off  of  those 
creeds  and  principles  of  authority  which  have  come  to  us  from 
the  ages  of  kingship  and  autocracy.  Even  at  the  present  day 
a  silent  advance  is  being  made  in  this  direction,  and  we  are  wit- 
nessing on  every  hand  a  growth  of  democratic  ideas  in  connec- 
tion with  religion.  It  is  not  that  religion  concerns  itself  directly 
with  the  promotion  of  the  political  aims  of  democracy ;  but  that 

[321] 


THE   SOCIAL    EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

freedom  of  thought,  liberty  of  inquiry,  the  furtherance  of  in- 
dividual beliefs,  the  demand  for  personal  interpretations  of  all 
religious  principles,  are  coming  more  and  more  into  the  fore- 
ground of  the  religious  life.  The  priest  and  the  preacher  may 
be  listened  to  with  respect,  and  followed  in  their  teachings  with 
a  considerable  degree  of  confidence ;  but  a  smaller  number  with 
each  generation  are  willing  to  accept  them  as  in  any  way  au- 
thoritative guides  in  regard  to  what  is  fundamental.  Even  in 
the  older  churches,  where  authority  reigns  in  apparent  suprem- 
acy, this  is  coming  to  be  true  in  an  appreciable  degree.  The 
pushing  forward  of  democracy  to  the  conquest  of  the  world  will, 
in  time,  undoubtedly,  influence  the  most  reactionary  and  ultra- 
montane of  these  churches,  and  bring  them  into  line  with  the 
world-movement.  If  they  cannot  be  modified  in  this  manner, 
the  life  of  the  new  time  will  sweep  by  them,  and  leave  them  in 
the  corners  of  the  world  to  live  out  their  little  day. 

The  demand  for  democracy,  industrial  opportunity,  peace 
throughout  the  world,  and  the  federation  of  the  nations  for  the 
advancement  of  economic  and  industrial  ends,  with  the  elimina- 
tion of  the  antagonisms  of  nations  for  the  promotion  of  exclu- 
sively national  interests  on  the  part  of  individual  nations  or 
small  groups  of  nations,  will  inevitably  in  time  lead  to  demand 
for  the  unification  of  the  ethical  and  religious  interests  of  man- 
kind. It  will  be  seen  that,  if  the  nations  are  federated  in  behalf 
of  common  industrial,  economic  and  political  interests,  they 
cannot  be  permitted  to  retain  the  old  antagonisms  growing  out 
of  diverse  creeds  and  religious  ideals.  This  result  can  be  brought 
about  either  by  bringing  all  peoples  under  one  religion  or  by  a 
synthetic  acceptance  of  what  is  common  to  all  the  advanced 
religions.  This  means,  that  what  makes  for  democracy  and 
peace,  what  promotes  an  ethical  life,  what  broadens  and  deepens 
and  universalizes  the  humanitarian  motive,  and  the  things  that 

[322] 


THE   SOCIAL    EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

make  for  fellowship  and  goodwill,  are  the  truly  essential  ele- 
ments in  any  and  all  religions. 

At  the  present  time  there  is  a  growing  demand  in  Christian 
lands  that  the  antagonisms  of  sects  shall  be  eliminated,  and 
that  they  shall  federate  together  to  promote  the  interests  they 
have  in  common.  While  the  growth  of  new  sects  has  been  in 
recent  years  more  rapid  than  the  affiliation  of  the  old  ones, 
yet  the  developing  ideal  of  unity  is  becoming  more  and  more 
forceful  as  a  general  aim  to  be  sought  for  and  promoted.  At 
the  same  time,  as  we  have  seen,  there  is  an  enlarging  recogni- 
tion of  the  universality  of  religion,  that  all  religions  may  be 
defined  under  one  category,  and  that  each  religion  may  profit 
by  the  history,  the  ideals,  and  the  beliefs  of  all  others.  Per- 
haps neither  of  these  tendencies  has  as  yet  developed  to  any 
considerable  extent ;  but  the  federation  of  the  nations,  in  order 
to  promote  the  interests  they  have  in  common,  will  inevitably 
lead  to  a  closer  intimacy  of  the  churches  of  the  world,  by 
whatever  name  they  may  be  known,  and  will  tend  to  bring 
about  a  more  genuine  co-operation  of  all  good  men  everywhere 
for  the  promotion  of  every  humanitarian  work  and  ideal. 
When  this  result  is  reached,  it  can  little  matter  how  the  theo- 
logians and  the  sectarians  regard  the  work  that  has  been  ac- 
complished. 

The  liberal-minded  Christian  should  remember  that  there 
is  the  broadest  possible  contrast  between  the  Jesus  of  the  New 
Testament  and  the  Christ  of  the  creeds  and  the  theologies. 
The  Nicene  and  the  Athanasian,  and  even  the  Apostles'  creed 
represent  nothing  that  is  historical ;  and  they  are  very  far  from 
being  true  to  the  facts  of  human  experience.  One  of  the  re- 
sults is  that  the  common  daily  expressions  of  religion  are 
largely  "conventional  and  traditional,  merely  repetitions  of  old 
phrases,  catchwords  or  terms  that  carry  no  present-day  con- 

[323] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

viction.  Faith  in  the  Lord,  and  in  God  the  Father,  is  uttered 
in  the  same  manner  and  tone  that  faith  in  the  influence  of  the 
moon  on  crops  is  stated.  Neither  belief  is  likely  to  carry  with 
it  knowledge  or  deep  conviction. 

The  religion  of  the  future  must  more  and  more  develop  in 
the  direction  of  making  a  better  human  world,  a  world  in 
which  all  persons  shall  find  the  highest  measure  of  develop- 
ment possible  to  them  as  individuals.  Religion  does  by  no 
means  consist  in  belief  in  ghosts  or  spirits  or  even  in  gods ;  but 
many  of  its  highest  expressions  are  purely  human,  and  con- 
cerned with  the  present-day  interests  of  human  beings,  as  well 
as  with  the  present-world  destinies  of  mankind,  not  merely 
with  those  of  individuals.  The  conception  of  the  great  future 
of  humanity,  the  faith  in  large  and  noble  reforms,  etc.,  act  as 
religious  motives,  inspiring  not  only  enthusiasm,  but  faith, 
hope,  courage,  and  steadiness  of  purpose.  This  faith  has  most 
of  the  deeper  qualities  and  sanctions  offered  by  the  old  re- 
ligious motives. 

A  higher  ethicism  is  demanded  by  the  new  conception  of 
humanity,  that  the  ethical  motive  shall  be  that  of  the  nation  or 
the  race  rather  than  that  of  the  individual.  It  will  have  very 
nearly  all  the  incentives  of  religion,  an  eager  desire  to  serve 
mankind,  ancl  an  inspiring  faith  in  the  future  of  humanity 
throughout  the  ages  to  come.  In  large  degree  the  religious 
motive  will  be  replaced  by  the  'ethical.  The  moral  life  has 
grown  with  social  and  political  progress,  and  it  is  a  direct 
expansion  of  that  progress.  Since  the  feudal  era  it  has  been 
more  and  more  without  the  mystical  and  supernatural  sanc- 
tions of  the  older  religions,  but  has  become  distinctly  human, 
concerned  with  social  and  individual  welfare.  It  no  longer 
depends  primarily  on  theology  and  metaphysics. 

[324] 


THE   SOCIAL    EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

Religion  is  not  science,  and  cannot  be  identified  with  it; 
but  it  must  accept  what  science  declares ;  and  it  must  have  its 
foundations  in  the  scientific  spirit  and  method.  Its  cosmology 
must  be  that  of  science,  and  its  conception  of  human  origins, 
and  the  quality  of  human  nature,  must  be  also  scientific.  Its 
morality  must  have  a  truly  scientific  foundation,  no  longer  re- 
lying merely  on  tradition  and  customs  originating  in  a  far-off 
past,  when  human  life  was  quite  other  than  it  is  now.  Some  of 
the  directions  in  which  science  will  aid  in  the  development  of 
the  future  of  religion  may  be  presented  here,  in  briefest  state- 
ment : 

a.  A  greater  recognition  of  the  social  origin  and  functions 
of  religion. 

b.  In  conformity  with  this  recognition  a  much  greater 
effort  will  be  made  to  ameliorate  human  conditions.    Without 
doubt  less  stress  will  be  laid  on  what  is  other-worldly,  and 
far  more  upon  making  this  world  of  human  conditions  a  fit 
place  for  human  habitation.    That  is,  it  will  become  more  and 
more  humanitarian,  and  will  clearly  set  before  itself,  if  it  is 
wise  and  worthy  to  continue  as  a  human  force,  the  task  of 
helping  to  abolish  poverty,  vice,  crime,  and  ignorance. 

c.  A  growing  unity  of  purpose  as  between  the  several  re- 
ligions will  be  one  of  the  tendencies  of  the  coming  years.    The 
Protestant  sects  are  likely  to  affiliate  more  closely  in  all  prac- 
tical efforts  for  human  welfare,  and  some  of  them  will  amalga- 
mate.   The  estrangement  between  Protestantism  and  Catholi- 
cism, Roman  and  Greek,  is  likely  to  grow  less.    A  profounder 
understanding  and  appreciation  of  the  other  great  religions  of 
the  world  will  slowly  come  about,  and  there  will  be  a  larger 
recognition  of  each  other  on  the  part  of  all  the  progressive 
religious  movements  throughout  the  world.    It  will  come  to  be 
recognized  that  all  religions  are  capable  of  producing  good 

[325] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF  RELIGION 

men  and  faithful  citizens,  and  that  conduct  does  not  rest  pri- 
marily on  beliefs  and  creeds. 

d.  Science  will  be  more  and  more  widely  accepted  as  ex- 
plaining the  methods  by  which  the  individual  and  society  can 
be  improved.     Evolution  will  be  practically,  as  well  as  the- 
oretically, accepted  as  interpreting  the  origin  and  nature  of 
the  moral  life,  its  sanctions  and  methods  of  enforcement  of 
its  dictates.    Heredity  and  eugenics  will  play  a  large  part  in 
the  practical  interpretation  of  human  life,  and  the  efforts  to 
advance  the  ethical  interests  of  mankind. 

e.  Religion  will  become  more  rational.    There  will  be  less 
of  submission  to  the  demands  of  tradition,  and  to  those  crude 
and  cruel  ideas  in  regard  to  the  future  which  have  marred 
and  darkened  all  religion  in  the  past. 

f.  Religion    will    become    more    tolerant,    humane,    and 
sympathetic.    It  will  also  become  more  friendly  towards  aber- 
rant ideas  and  beliefs.    Belief  will  be  seen  to  be  of  less  im- 
portance than  conduct;  and  individual  opinion  will  not  only 
be  permitted,  but  welcomed.     In  a  word,  orthodoxy  will  be 
less  insisted  upon  than  it  has  been  in  the  past,  and  it  may  be 
even  discarded  as  of  no  importance.     It  will  be  recognized 
that  religion  cannot  compel  by  any  process  uniformity  of  be- 
lief in  the  modern  world;  but  may  secure  unity  in  the  desire 
to  promote  good  works,  a  more  ethical  and  nobler  life,  and  a 
wide-reaching  spirit  of  helpfulness  and  purpose  to  uplift  hu- 
manity in  so  far  as  possible. 

g.  That  which  in  the  past  orthodoxy  has  most  severely 
condemned  —  the  good  life  without  a  strict  belief  in  the  creeds 
—  will  become  the  very  foundation  of  future  religion.     The 
church  has  given  us  too  many  creeds,  and  it  has  asked  for  be- 
liefs which  will  be  more  and  more  rejected  by  all  thinking  and 
progressive    persons.      The    past    of    religion    proves    clearly 

[326] 


THE   SOCIAL    EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

enough  that  it  is  not  soundness  of  faith,  but  soundness  of  life 
and  character,  which  advance  personal  and  social  religion  to 
its  highest  expression.  The  individual  may  believe  in  the  strict- 
est manner  possible,  and  to  the  fullest  extent,  and  yet  fail  in 
every  particular  to  live  an  honest,  noble,  and  manly  life.  It 
may  be  anticipated  that  all  the  creeds  will  in  time  go  into  the 
dustheaps  of  the  past,  and  that  religion  will  gain  immensely 
by  the  process  of  elimination.  Nearly  all  the  creeds  belong 
to  the  past,  and  to  old  or  dead  processes  of  thought. 

h.  The  present  demands  a  more  social,  humanitarian  and 
tolerant  religion  —  one  based  on  conduct,  desire  for  human 
welfare,  and  combined  effort  to  make  a  better  world  in  which 
men,  women,  and  children  will  be  helped  to  live  the  best  life 
possible  to  each  and  every  person.  This  means  that  caste, 
class,  social  barriers,  dominations  of  wealth,  and  all  religious 
and  social  restrictions  shall  be  abolished  from  human  rela- 
tions; and  that  all  shall  meet  on  a  basis  of  fellowship  and 
good-will. 

VI 

If  we  look  seriously  at  this  moment  at  what  it  is  in  our 
own  country  which  truly  indicates  the  nature  of  the  religious 
convictions  of  the  American  people,  we  shall  be  the  better 
prepared  to  believe  that  a  great  change  is  advancing  over  the 
world  in  the  realm  of  religious  beliefs.  Remembering  that  in 
the  past,  when  religion  was  a  great  unifying  force  in  the  lives 
of  nations  and  races,  and  it  was  a  common  ideal  and  motive 
living  in  the  life  of  the  whole  nation,  we  may  inquire  as  to 
what  it  is  to-day  which  is  unifying  the  interests  and  aims  of 
the  American  people.  The  various  sects,  however  much  they 
have  talked  of  unity  and  the  promotion 'of  their  common  aims, 
have  not  federated,  and  are  not  working  together  as  one  uni- 

[327] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

fied  body  for  the  promotion  of  human  welfare.  If  their  old 
antagonisms  are  not  as  strong  as  formerly,  yet  they  have  not 
come  to  stand  together  as  a  solid  ethical  force  for  Christianity 
or  even  for  the  helping  forward  of  the  cause  of  democracy  and 
peace.  On  the  other  hand,  what  has  unified  the  life  of  the 
American  people  in  an  astonishing  degree  is  patriotism. 
Christianity  has  not  brought  about  this  result,  and  apparently 
could  not  at  the  present  time  bring  it  about.  Patriotism  alone 
has  wrought  the  miracle,  has  accomplished  what  was  appar- 
ently impossible. 

No  other  conclusion,  therefore,  can  be  reached  than  that 
patriotism  is  the  real  unifying  force  to-day  in  the  life  of  this, 
as  of  all  other  progressive  nations.  Apparently  the  same  force 
operates  in  all  European  countries,  with  the  result  that  there 
has  been,  as  here,  a  marvellous  growth  of  patriotism,  which  is 
leading  to  the  greatest  sacrifices  on  the  part  of  millions,  not 
because  the  people  are  compelled  to  give  of  their  lives  and  their 
substance  for  the  promotion  of  military  interests;  but  because 
they  have  voluntarily,  for  love  of  country,  thrown  themselves 
into  the  support  of  what  their  country  represents  and  is  seek- 
ing to  accomplish.  Can  there  be  any  other  conclusion,  there- 
fore, than  that  the  real  religion  of  the  world  today  is  patriot- 
ism? What  Christianity  has  not  been  able  to  accomplish,  the 
unification  of  a  nation  for  some  great  ideal  aim,  patriotism  has 
brought  about  with  a  minimum  of  effort,  and  in  an  incredibly 
short  time. 

There  was  a  time  when  the  church  stood  above  the  state, 
and  dictated  to  it  its  policies  and  its  lines  of  conduct.  Now  it 
has  become  of  distinctly  lesser  importance  than  the  state,  and 
subject  to  it.  The  church  continues  steadily  to  recede  in  its 
influence,  but  the  state  is  as  steadily  increasing  in  its  meanings 
for  mankind.  In  all  democratic  lands  the  church  has  become 

[328] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

of  minor  significance  and  value,  and  in  large  degree  subordi- 
nate; but  where  the  old  autocratic  rule  obtains  the  church  is 
more  fully  recognized,  and  in  proportion  to  the  autocratic 
rule.  However,  even  under  autocracies  the  people  may  largely 
reject  the  church  as  an  authority,  and  as  having  a  right  to 
dominate  individual  belief  and  conduct.  It  may  support  the 
aristocratic  regime,  as  it  often  does;  but  that  does  not  insure 
its  acceptance  on  the  part  of  the  mass  of  the  people,  who  are 
becoming  more  and  more  imbued  with  democratic  ideas  and 
motives. 

The  thinkers  of  the  world  no  longer  look  to  the  church  or 
to  revelation  as  giving  sanction  to  ethical  principles  and  con- 
duct. It  is  seen  clearly  enough  that  morality  originates  in  so- 
cial conditions,  the  relations  of  individuals  to  each  other  in 
society,  and  that  it  is  by  no  means  essential  that  one  or  another 
god  shall  guarantee  the  fundamental  motives  on  which  it  is 
based.  Since  it  is  on  the  primary  ethical  principles  that  the 
state  rests  for  its  right  to  exist,  it  is  no  longer  necessary  that 
the  state  should  appeal  to  the  church  or  take  from  it  any  iota 
of  its  right  to  exist.  In  fact,  more  and  more  the  state  usurps 
the  place  once  occupied  by  the  church,  and  makes  a  more  ef- 
fective appeal  to  the  great  majority  of  the  people  than  it  is 
now  possible  for  the  church  to  present.  That  is  the  reason 
why  it  is  possible  for  the  whole  mass  of  the  nation  to  accept 
the  claims  of  patriotism,  love  of  country,  and  joy  in  the  things 
of  the  free  spirit  it  represents  and  promotes.  If  the  state  still 
continues  to  exercise  some  of  the  autocratic  power  once  belong- 
ing to  the  church  in  a  supreme  degree,  we  may  be  convinced 
that  this  tendency  must  pass  away  with  the  growth  of  a 
genuine  democracy. 

Love  of  country  has  become  a  religion,  which  is  slowly 
broadening  out  to  an  international  conception  of  human  re- 

[329] 


THE   SOCIAL    EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

lations  and  obligations.  We  may  not  doubt  that  in  time  there 
will  develop  a  world  conception,  a  recognition  of  the  great  fact 
that  nothing  human  can  be  alien  to  us.  The  furtherance  of 
all  human  interests,  the  bringing  nation  into  close  fellowship 
with  nation,  the  having  regard  to  the  welfare  of  all  who  live  in 
whatever  land  or  of  whatever  color  —  this  will  enter  very 
largely  into  the  religion  of  the  future.  Love  of  God,  if  that 
is  to  be  retained  in  any  degree  of  effectiveness,  must  mean  love 
of  all  human  beings,  profound  regard  for  the  interests  of  man- 
kind, and  desire  to  promote,  in  whatever  degree  possible  to  us 
as  individuals,  the  welfare  of  all  the  kinsmen  of  the  human 
fellowship. 

As  the  fellowship  of  the  church  lessens,  the  fellowship  of 
the  state  increases.  It  seems  more  than  probable  to-day  that 
the  bonds  uniting  individuals  to  the  church  will  slowly  cease 
to  have  any  meaning,  while  those  uniting  individuals  to  the 
state  will  grow  stronger  and  more  effective.  In  the  past  men 
have  sought  fellowship  in  the  church,  now  they  are  seeking  it 
in  the  state,  and  finding  it  coming  closer  to  them,  with  ties  of 
sympathy  and  inspiration  the  church  can  no  longer  provide 
to  an  ever-increasing  number  of  men  and  women.  True  it  is 
that  the  state  fails  in  many  a  particular  to  serve  the  interests 
of  the  individual  and  the  community  as  it  ought;  but  it  is 
growing  in  its  capacity  to  serve  and  to  invigorate  human  inter- 
ests of  all  kinds.  It  seems  most  probable,  therefore,  that  in 
the  coming  time  love  of  the  church  will  be,  as  it  is  now,  largely 
superseded  by  love  of  country.  Patriotism  gives  a  great  fel- 
lowship, one  which  unites  men  of  all  opinions  and  degrees  of 
culture,  while  the  church  serves  more  and  more  to  divide  men 
from  each  other. 

The  only  hope  of  the  church  in  the  future  is  that  it  shall 
put  away  its  disintegrating  motives  and  teachings,  its  creeds 

[330] 


THE   SOCIAL    EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

and  its  antiquated  beliefs,  and  seek  fellowship  with  all  lovers 
of  what  is  human  and  noble  and  beautiful,  in  all  lands  and 
under  all  religions.  If  it  cannot  do  that,  its  day  of  doom  is 
read  out  to  it,  and  cannot  be  escaped.  Mankind  is  one,  and  it 
needs  but  one  religion  and  one  motive  for  human  fellowship. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Christianity  is  to-day  in  the 
melting-pot,  and  that  it  is  being  tried  as  by  fire.  It  is  being 
questioned,  tested,  and  searched  to  the  very  foundation  of  its 
being.  How  it  will  come  out  from  the  great  world-struggle 
no  one  can  now  answer,  and  yet  it  will  not  be  as  it  went  in.  It 
is  being  tested  most  thoroughly,  and  it  may  come  out  purified 
and  refined ;  but  it  may  also  lose  its  power  over  millions  of  men 
and  women.  These  are  questioning  what  there  was  of  defect 
in  it,  that  it  could  not  prevent  the  great  world-war;  and  be- 
cause it  could  not,  or  did  not,  there  is  something  ethically 
lacking  to  its  claims.  The  patent  fact  that  all  the  great 
Christian  nations  have  been  taking  part  in  this  desperate  strug- 
gle for  industrial  and  commercial  supremacy  can  but  make 
all  independent  thinkers  question  as  to  what  is  the  real  signi- 
ficance of  Christianity  as  a  world-force  capable  of  unifying  the 
nations,  and  of  promoting  democracy  and  peace.  Other  in- 
fluences, apparently,  are  coming  forward  to  bring  about  what 
it  has  not  secured  during  the  nearly  two  thousand  years  of 
existence  as  a  world-force. 

Will  there  come  a  new  religion,  equal  to  the  needs  of  this 
new  time?  Some  indications  may  be  seen  that  such  a  develop- 
ment is  even  now  in  progress,  and  that  it  may  attain  to  rapid 
growth  in  the  near  future.  The  freer-thinking  men  and 
women  of  all  religions  are  coming  into  closer  sympathy  with 
each  other,  are  holding  great  world  conferences  to  promote 
the  aims  they  have  in  common,  and  are  endeavoring  to  put  the 
emphasis  on  what  is  universal  or  on  what  will  promote  the 

[331] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF  RELIGION 

humanitarian  development  of  all  peoples.  As  yet  there  is  no 
close  affiliation,  no  organizing  of  a  sect,  no  effort  to  propa- 
gandize for  these  new  movements.  The  number  of  those  who 
desire  as  yet  to  promote  such  a  unification  of  the  world's 
religions  is  not  large ;  but  in  all  lands  smaller  or  larger  groups 
are  seeking  to  bring  about  the  advancement  of  what  will  bring 
good-will  between,  and  genuine  affiliation  of,  thinkers  and 
humanitarians  throughout  the  world.  If  at  present  the  most 
spectacular  movement  toward  the  religious  unification  of  the 
world  is  that  of  Christian  propaganda,  with  the  claim  that  it 
alone  can  save  mankind  for  ethical  fidelity  and  the  harmony 
of  nations,  we  may  question  if  it  has  any  such  significance  as 
that  of  the  silent  forces  which  are  everywhere  steadily  work- 
ing to  bring  the  nations  together,  and  to  bring  into  closest 
sympathy  and  fellowship  those  of  all  lands  and  religions  who 
are  desirous  that  all  mankind  shall  work  together  for  what  is 
promotive  of  permanent  human  welfare  throughout  the  world. 
What  political,  social  or  religious  force  it  shall  be  which 
promotes  the  growth  of  democracy  and  peace  cannot  be  of 
great  importance,  so  that  these  aims  shall  be  genuinely  ad- 
vanced in  all  lands.  The  breaking  down  of  the  spirit  of  mil- 
itary and  autocratic  domination  over  the  lives  and  interests 
of  the  great  mass  of  the  people  is  what  it  is  desirable  to  have 
accomplished.  Any  religion  which  seeks  to  hinder  that  ex- 
pulsion of  the  lords  and  kings  must  suffer  the  righteous  wrath 
of  the  people  against  it,  and  its  day  must  end  thereby.  Any 
religion  which  allies  itself  with  the  people,  which  is  ready  to 
become  truly  democratic,  wiH  have  before  it  a  great  future. 
It  needs  no  prophet  to  assure  us  that  the  coming  religion 
must  be  one  growing  out  of  the  lives  of  the  toiling  millions, 
voicing  their  aspirations,  assuring  them  hope,  joy  of  life,  and 
confidence  in  regard  to  the  future. 

[332] 


THE   SOCIAL    EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

It  might  appear  that  the  religion  which  reaches  back 
through  countless  generations,  that  has  gathered  up  sanctities 
and  ideals  through  thousands  of  years,  is  the  one  most  likely 
to  command  the  future.  This  might  be  true,  were  it  not  that 
all  such  religions  carry  with  them  many  and  many  a  survival 
of  the  old  days  of  tyranny  and  autocratic  power.  They  are 
also  cumbered  with  credulities  and  superstitions  which  this 
scientific  age  cannot  tolerate,  and  will  not  believe  have  any 
genuine  connection  with  religion,  at  least  of  the  kind  which 
is  rational,  forward-looking,  and  humanitarian. 

Therefore,  we  may  anticipate  that,  either  some  one  of  the 
existing  religions  will  be  brought  up-to-date  in  its  beliefs  and  its 
ideals,  or  that  some  new  religion  will  come  into  existence.  In 
the  end  it  cannot  greatly  concern  us  as  to  which  of  these 
methods  is  followed,  though  we  may  have  a  conviction  that 
the  second  gives  by  far  the  greater  outlook  as  to  the  promotion 
of  a  truly  ethical  life  for  all  mankind.  The  unification  of  na- 
tions, the  working  together  of  all  peoples  for  what  will  secure 
the  largest  amount  of  human  fellowship  and  sympathy,  is  what 
we  must  ask  of  any  religion  to  which  we  give  our  assent,  and 
our  enthusiastic  acceptance.  That  such  a  religion  is  growing, 
that  it  is  already  well  on  its  way  above  the  horizon,  is  the  con- 
viction which  we  have,  and  which  gives  us  utmost  courage 
and  hope. 

It  may  be  that  it  will  require  centuries  for  the  evolution 
of  the  new  religion,  but  already  it  is  in  the  womb  of  the  future. 
We  cannot  doubt  that  it  will  be  with  man  in  the  centuries  to 
come,  and  that  it  will  give  him  new  hope  and  courage.  It  will 
be  scientific,  humanitarian,  and  progressive.  At  the  same  time 
it  will  be  profoundly  ethical,  and  mindful  above  all  else  of 
human  conduct  and  character.  The  motives  it  will  offer  will 
appeal  alike  to  the  individual  and  the  collective  man. 

[333] 


THE   SOCIAL    EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

The  new  religion  will  have  its  basis  in  the  past,  its  hope 
in  the  future,  its  reality  in  the  present.  As  we  look  through 
the  past  we  find  that  tribal  and  feudal  man  was  deeply  re- 
ligious, that  religion  filled  the  whole  of  his  life,  that  there  was 
no  act  of  his  where  religion  did  not  manifest  itself.  Every 
act  of  the  man  of  the  clan  and  the  tribe  was  intimately  asso- 
ciated with  some  religious  purpose  or  act.  The  feudal  man, 
as  in  the  Islam  of  to-day,  prays  often  and  devoutly.  Five 
times  in  the  day  he  pauses  in  prayer,  and  all  his  fellows  are 
with  him  in  this  act.  Even  the  man  under  the  early  forms  of 
national  religion  was  sincerely  pious,  often  sought  communion 
with  God,  never  failed  in  the  ritual  requirements  of  his  re- 
ligion, and  believed  that  which  was  incredible  and  hard  of 
belief. 

In  any  city  of  to-day,  in  the  management  of  any  modern 
state,  religion  has  no  manifestation  of  itself  as  in  the  early 
life  of  mankind.  On  the  streets,  in  the  places  of  business,  in 
the  courts,  in  halls  of  legislation,  in  the  daily  tasks  of  men 
and  women  religion  may  never  give  manifestation  of  its  pres- 
ence. For  an  hour  or  two  on  Sunday  it  may  come,  as  it  were, 
out  of  its  hiding,  and  make  itself  really  felt.  In  this  respect 
it  is  markedly  different  from  what  it  was  in  its  earlier  mani- 
festations. Then  it  was  ever  present  and  could  not  for  a  day 
or  an  hour  be  escaped  from  in  any  part  of  life.  Now  one  may 
pass  through  many  days,  even  many  years,  and  see  no  ex- 
pression of  religion  in  its  outward  manifestations  of  itself.  It 
may  enter  deeply  into  the  lives  of  individuals,  and  even  con- 
trol the  motives  of  their  lives;  and  yet  it  may  have  no  power 
to  reach  and  influence  the  community  as  a  corporate  reality. 
It  is  for  the  individual,  not  for  the  town,  the  city  or  the  state. 
In  becoming  individual  it  has  lost  its  capacity  to  direct  and 
stimulate  the  communal  or  the  national  life.  Its  deeper  mean- 

[334] 


THE   SOCIAL    EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

ings  are  for  the  individual  and  not  for  the  collective  life.  In 
becoming  distinctly  individualistic  it  has  lost  its  power  over 
a  great  number  of  men  and  women  in  all  human  communities 
where  this  development  has  taken  place. 

When  we  study  critically  Christianity  as  it  appears  in 
western  lands,  what  must  impress  us  most  emphatically  is  the 
wide  disparity  between  the  belief  and  the  practice  of  the  pro- 
fessed Christian.  This  appears  most  distinctly  in  the  national 
phases  it  presents,  for  in  becoming  more  and  more  individual- 
istic, a  means  of  private  incentive  and  consolation,  Christianity 
has  lost  its  hold  on  the  social  and  political  and  business  life  of 
modern  western  communities.  Nothing  could  more  amaze  one 
than  to  hear  of  or  to  see  it  brought  into  real  manifestation  in 
any  of  the  acts  of  commerce  or  industry.  The  golden  rule  has 
lost  most,  if  not  all,  of  its  meanings  in  the  relations  of  those 
who  buy  labor  and  those  who  sell  it  as  a  commodity.  In 
legislative  halls  prayer  is  heard  at  the  opening  of  each  session, 
but  religion  may  be  silent  throughout  the  remainder  of  the 
day.  Indeed,  the  broader  ethical  conceptions,  and  the  primary 
principles  of  human  justice,  may  appear  to  be  banished  from 
both  of  these  acts  of  human  beings. 

If  religion  is  to  be  retained  by  mankind,  if  it  is  to  have 
any  commanding  power  in  the  future,  this  yawning  gulf  be- 
tween profession  and  practice  must  be  bridged  over,  and  made 
not  to  be.  Religion  must  again  enter  into  the  whole  of  life  or 
it  were  better  it  should  pass  out  of  existence.  It  cannot  con- 
tinue as  a  pretence,  as  something  for  special  days  or  occasions 
or  for  a  few  devout  souls.  Death  must  come  to  it  if  it  cannot 
recover  its  collective  power,  its  ethical  stimulus  for  cities  and 
nations,  its  broadly  human  capacities.  Rignano's  idea  that  it 
may  be  retained  for  a  few  individuals  who  have  a  genius  for 
prayer  and  worship  cannot  insure  the  future  of  religion.  It 

[335] 


THE   SOCIAL    EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

must  belong  to  the  acts  of  every  day  throughout  the  whole  na- 
tion or  it  were  better  that  it  should  die  as  Greek  pantheism  and 
Roman  paganism  have  died.  A  legend  of  the  old  time  said  that 
Great  Pan  has  died ;  and  we  may  query  if  some  new  legend  will 
not  mournfully  report,  as  the  word  is  echoed  over  land  and  sea, 
that  Lord  Christ  has  gone  the  way  of  all  that  is  outgrown.  It 
will  surely  be  so  if  religion  does  not  advance  away  from  the- 
ology and  metaphysics,  if  it  does  not  seek  above  everything 
else  the  good  of  all  who  live,  and  if  it  does  not  enter  profoundly 
and  convincingly  into  the  life  of  all  human  communities,  to 
secure  brotherhood,  justice  as  between  man  and  man,  and  to 
bring  human  welfare  to  its  highest  possible  estate. 


f336] 


CHAPTER  VIII 

Religion  as  Cosmic  and  Human  Motive 

RELIGION  may  be  regarded  as  a  process,  a  growth,  an 
evolution.  At  the  same  time  it  is  a  ferment,  a  stir  of  the 
mind,  a  battle  for  what  is  just  and  right.  In  its  older  forms 
always  conservative,  reactionary,  and  faced  towards  the  past, 
in  its  newer  manifestations  it  is  forward-looking,  progressive, 
and  rebellious  against  what  is  old  and  effete.  More  and  more 
it  identifies  itself  with  the  life  of  man,  and  with  his  aspirations 
towards  a  better  and  happier  life  for  all  who  live. 

Those  who  think  that  religion  has  been  outgrown  are 
more  concerned  with  what  it  has  been  in  the  past  than  with 
what  it  may  become  in  the  future.  Because  man  has  been  a 
savage  is  no  reason  why  we  should  reject  his  childhood  as  the 
path  which  has  led  to  his  manhood.  Because  he  has  believed 
in  magic  is  no  reason  why  we  should  reject  what  is  progressive 
and  humanitarian.  The  earth  was  once  a  fire-mist,  and  then  a 
great  ball  of  flaming  elements  in  a  condition  of  incandescence ; 
but  it  is  neither  of  these  now.  Nor  is  it  necessary  to  assume 
that  because  religion  was  once  cruel  and  degrading,  it  is  that 
now  or  will  be  that  forever.  What  we  are  to  consider  is  not 
what  it  has  been,  but  what  it  may  become.  Granted  all  the 
superstition,  fanaticism,  and  brutality  which  once  belonged 
to  it,  we  have  no  right  to  assume  that  it  will  retain  these  to  the 
end  of  time.  Granted  that  it  still  clings  tenaciously  to  what  be-  > 
longs  to  ignorance,  mythology,  and  rejection  of  science,  this 

[337] 


THE   SOCIAL    EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

is  not  proof  that  there  is  no  possibility  for  organizing  in  its 
V  name  what  is  rational,  progressive,  and  humane. 


The  question  presents  itself,  What  is  religion  ?  Many  have 
been  the  answers,  though  none  of  them  are  likely  to  agree 
with  each  other.  In  the  first  volume  of  the  third  edition  of 
The  Golden  Bough  (volume  one  of  The  Magic  Art),  J.  G. 
Frazer  defines  religion  as  "propitiation  or  conciliation  of 
powers  superior  to  man  which  are  believed  to  direct  and  con- 
trol the  course  of  nature  and  of  human  life.  Thus  defined," 
he  adds,  "religion  consists  of  two  elements,  a  theoretical  and  a 
practical,  namely,  a  belief  in  powers  higher  than  man  and  an 
attempt  to  propitiate  or  please  them."  He  proceeds  to  show 
that  religion  means  belief  in  superhuman  beings,  and  that  it 
consists  in  governing  the  life  by  the  individual  in  the  fear  or 
the  love  of  God.  Frank  G.  Speck,  in  a  recent  lecture  on  prim- 
itive religions,  defines  religion  "as  that  which  expresses  in 
life  the  relationship  between  man  and  the  supernatural  realm. ' ' 
These  definitions  are  from  men  of  science,  who  are  students 
of  the  earlier  forms  of  religion,  and  of  the  races  which  are  the 
most  primitive  in  their  religious  development.  Their  defini- 
tions, however,  belong  to  the  conventional  rather  than  to  the 
truly  scientific  results  of  investigation. 

Other  definitions  dispense  with  the  supernatural,  and  with 
an  autocratic  control  of  the  universe  by  a  divine  being.  John 
McTaggart,  for  instance,  in  Some  Dogmas  of  Religion,  says 
that  it  is  "an  emotion  resting  on  a  conviction  of  a  harmony 
between  ourselves  and  the  universe  at  large."  Edward  Caird, 
in  the  first  volume  of  his  Evolution  of  Religion,  says  that  "a 
man's  religion  is  the  expression  of  his  ultimate  attitude  to 

[338] 


THE   SOCIAL    EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

the  universe,  the  summed-up  meaning  and  purport  of  his  whole 
consciousness  of  things. "  William  James  expressed  a  similar 
point  of  view  in  The  Varieties  of  Religious  Experience,  when 
he  said  that  "the  religious  life  consists  of  the  belief  that  there 
is  an  unseen  order  and  that  our  supreme  good  lies  in  har- 
moniously adjusting  ourselves  thereto. "  Henry  Bosanquet, 
defining  religion  in  Baldwin's  Dictionary  of  Philosophy  and 
Psychology,  says  that  a  man's  religion  "is  that  set  of  objects, 
habits,  and  convictions,  whatever  it  might  prove  to  be,  which 
he  would  die  for  rather  than  abandon,  or  at  least  would  feel 
himself  excommunicated  from  humanity  if  he  did  abandon. " 
As  distinctly  excluding  all  idea  of  the  supernatural  may  be 
taken  the  definition  of  Thomas  Davidson,  in  an  article  in  the 
International  Journal  of  Ethics,  on  the  subject  of  American 
Democracy  as  a  Religion,  where  he  defines  religion  as  that  which 
places  us  in  harmony  with  our  environment,  that  we  may  "at- 
tain the  highest  possible  development  in  knowledge,  love,  and 
will."  He  proceeds  to  say  that  "not  only  is  Americanism  a 
religion,  but  that  it  is  the  noblest  of  all  religions,  that  which 
best  insures  the  realization  of  the  highest  manhood  and  woman- 
hood, and  points  them  to  the  highest  goal. ' '  To  much  the  same 
purport  is  the  definition  of  modern  religion  given  by  H.  G. 
Wells  at  the  end  of  God  the  Invisible  King,  where  he  says: 
"It  is  a  process  of  truth,  guided  by  the  divinity  in  man.  It 
needs  no  other  guidance,  and  no  protection.  It  needs  nothing 
but  freedom,  free  speech,  and  honest  statement."  On  an  im- 
mediately preceding  page  he  says  again:  "Religion  which  is 
free,  speaking  freely  through  whom  it  will,  subject  to  a  per- 
petual unlimited  criticism,  will  be  the  life  and  driving  power 
of  the  whole  organized  world." 

Here  we  have  a  wide  enough  variety  of  definitions  of  re- 
ligion to  fit  any  mind  or  any  mood  of  it,  all  of  them  from  mod- 

[339] 


THE   SOCIAL    EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

ern  thinkers.  This  variety  indicates  how  widely  divergent  re- 
ligion has  come  to  be  for  the  modern  mind,  and  how  many  the 
thinkers  who  depart  from  the  established  and  inherited  con- 
ceptions of  its  nature.  However,  when  we  consider  the  real 
significance  of  these  definitions,  and  what  they  imply  with 
reference  to  the  developing  tendencies  of  modern  religious 
thought,  they  are  far  less  widely  apart  than  at  first  would 
appear.  When  we  read  these  words  in  connection  with  the 
works  from  which  they  have  been  taken,  we  may  not  doubt  that  a 
new  meaning  for  religion  is  growing  among  men,  and  one  that 
faces  joyously  and  confidently  all  the  facts  of  the  modern 
world,  believes  that  they  are  evolutionary  and  progressive, 
and  that  they  mean  the  outgrowing  of  all  that  is  dark  and 
forbidding  in  the  religion  of  the  past.  This  new  tendency  in 
religion  is  turning  from  the  supernatural  to  the  human,  from 
the  miraculous  to  what  is  natural,  and  from  the  mere  routine 
of  ritual  to  the  service  of  man. 


II 

A  very  suggestive,  and,  indeed,  a  startling  indication  as 
to  what  is  now  taking  place  in  the  thoughts  of  intelligent  men 
and  women  may  be  found  in  the  book  by  James  H.  Leuba  on 
The  Belief  in  God  and  Immortality.  In  the  second  part  of 
that  work  he  presents  a  statistical  study  of  the  belief  in  a 
personal  God  and  in  personal  immortality  in  the  United  States. 
By  means  of  questionnaires  he  secured  the  opinions  of  nearly 
one  thousand  students  in  the  non-technical  departments  of 
nine  colleges  of  high  rank,  and  also  of  the  same  number  of 
American  scientists,  sociologists,  historians  and  psychologists. 
As  the  result  of  these  inquiries  he  found  that  31  per  cent,  of 
the  men  among  college  students  conceived  of  God  as  imper- 

[340] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF  EELIGION 

sonal  and  11  per  cent,  of  the  women.  Taking  together  all 
who  do  not  distinctly  believe  in  a  personal  God  the  number 
of  men  is  40.5  per  cent,  and  the  number  of  women  15.7  per 
cent.  He  found  also  that,  considered  all  together,  as  many 
as  from  40  to  50  per  cent,  of  the  young  men  leaving  college 
entertain  an  idea  of  God  incompatible  with  the  acceptance  of 
the  Christian  religion,  even  as  interpreted  by  the  liberal  clergy. 

Leuba  shows  that  only  7  per  cent,  of  these  persons 
hold  to  a  thoroughly  anthropomorphic  idea  of  God,  that  is, 
that  he  is  manlike  and  material  in  his  nature.  Two-thirds  of 
the  men  and  nearly  half  the  women  disclaim  any  mental  picture 
of  God.  This  means  that  they  do  not  conceive  of  God  under 
any  form  that  can  be  definitely  defined  in  concrete  shape. 
Thirty-two  per  cent,  of  the  men  and  17  per  cent,  of  the 
women  are  of  the  opinion  that  the  non-existence  of  God  would 
make  no  difference  at  all  in  their  lives.  Apparently  as  many 
as  43  per  cent,  of  the  men,  and  22  per  cent,  of  the  women 
think  themselves  morally  independent  of  the  existence  of 
God.  Summing  up  the  results  of  his  inquiries  in  regard  to 
the  beliefs  of  college  students,  and  after  giving  a  con- 
siderable number  of  the  replies  he  received  from  them,  Leuba 
concludes:  "The  deepest  impression  left  by  these  records  is 
that,  so  far  as  religion  is  concerned,  our  students  are  grov- 
elling in  darkness.  Christianity,  as  a  system  of  belief,  has 
utterly  broken  down,  and  nothing  definite,  adequate,  and  con- 
vincing has  taken  its  place.  Their  beliefs,  when  they  have  any, 
are  superficial  and  amateurish  in  the  extreme.  There  is  no 
generally  acknowledged  authority;  each  one  believes  as  he 
can,  and  few  seem  disturbed  at  being  unable  to  hold  the  tenets 
of  the  churches.  This  sense  of  freedom  is  the  glorious  side  of 
an  otherwise  dangerous  situation." 

Leuba  found  that,  in  regard  to  both  belief  in  God  and 

[341] 


THE   SOCIAL    EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

immortality,  the  number  of  believers  decreased  with  the  ad- 
vance from  the  freshman  to  the  senior  years  in  college,  so 
that  the  more  these  men  gained  of  knowledge  and  culture  the 
less  likely  were  they  to  hold  fast  to  the  beliefs  of  their  youth. 
The  number  of  believers  in  immortality,  however,  was  greater 
than  the  number  of  believers  in  God  throughout  the  whole 
college  course.  Some  surprise  is  expressed,  as  the  result  of 
this  investigation,  that  as  many  as  35  per  cent,  of  the  juniors 
and  seniors  in  a  Christian  college  were  unable  to  believe 
in  immortality,  and  a  considerable  additional  number  indif- 
ferent to  it.  Leuba  adds:  "This  situation  points  to  a  very 
profound  change  now  taking  place  in  the  convictions  of  our 
educated  young  people  regarding  a  belief  usually  considered 
vital  to  Christianity."  Certainly,  in  view  of  the -fact  that  most 
of  the  older  colleges  and  universities  were,  founded  distinctly 
on  a  Christian  basis,  and  with  the  avowed  purpose  of  prepar- 
ing young  men  for  the  ministry  of  the  Christian  church,  and 
that  nearly  all  the  graduates  formerly  entered  upon  that  pro- 
fession, the  change  is  one  of  startling  significance.  Put  these 
facts  by  the  side  of  the  statement  in  his  biography,  that  John 
Fiske,  when  a  stuclent  at  Harvard,  was  threatened  with  expul- 
sion because  he  believed  in  and  promulgated  the  doctrine  of 
evolution.  A  little  later  he  failed  to  secure  a  professorship 
because  of  his  acceptance  of  this  scientific  belief.  Even  as 
late  as  1872  he  was  refused  the  opportunity  to  lecture  at  the 
Lowell  Institute  because  he  did  not  believe  in  the  divine  revela- 
tion of  the  Bible. 

Leuba  was  also  desirous  of  finding  what  were  the  beliefs 
of  scientific  men  in  this  country;  and  he  selected  his  inquiry 
lists  with  a  view  to  securing  the  opinions  of  the  leading  men, 
as  well  as  those  of  lesser  note.  He  found  that  the  men  of 
greater  knowledge  and  attainments  were  less  inclined  to  believe 

[342] 


THE   SOCIAL    EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

in  God  and  immortality  than  those  who  held  lower  rank. 
Taking  together  the  nearly  one  thousand  men  from  whom  he 
received  answers,  he  found  that  there  were  50.6  per  cent, 
of  the  lesser  men  and  only  49.4  per  cent,  of  the  greater  who 
believe  in  immortality.  Those  believing  in  God  were  51  per 
cent,  of  the  lesser  and  35.7  per  cent,  of  the  greater.  These  be- 
longed to  the  first  five  hundred  whom  he  investigated.  In  his 
second  group  the  numbers  were  45.5  per  cent,  and  27.7  per 
cent,  for  believers  in  God;  and  52.8  per  cent,  and  35.2  per 
cent,  for  believers  in  immortality.  The  number  of  agnostics 
or  those  of  indefinite  opinions  proved  to  be  greater  than  the 
disbelievers  in  regard  to  immortality.  Among  the  greater 
scientists  the  agnostics  and  doubters  were  43.7  per  cent.,  and 
the  disbelievers  only  25.4  per  cent. 

It  was  found  that  the  physicists  furnished  a  considerably 
larger  number  of  believers  both  in  God  and  in  immortality 
than  the  biologists.  Among  the  greater  biologists  was  found  a 
small  number  of  believers,  only  16.9  per  cent,  believing  in 
God  and  25.4  per  cent,  believing  in  immortality.  Among  the 
historians  the  numbers  were  much  larger,  as  might  have  been 
anticipated  before  the  inquiry  began.  Of  the  sociologists, 
hjywever,  the  proportion  of  believers  in  God  proved  to  be  quite 
j/small.  The  greater  psychologists  showed  only  13.2  per  cent, 
who  are  believers  in  God,  and  only  8.8  per  cent,  of  believers 
in  immortality,  the  smallest  figures  secured  in  regard  to  any 
class  entering  into  this  investigation. 

Leuba  regards  the  figures  he  gives  in  his  book  as  actually 
representing  the  beliefs  of  American  students  and  scientists, 
and  that  they  can  be  trusted  as  giving  a  just  estimate  of  the 
attitude  of  these  classes  towards  the  greater  beliefs  of  religion. 
Among  the  one  thousand  scientists  he  says  are  included  all  the 
intellectual  leaders  of  the  United  States.  Since  they  are  teach- 

[343] 


THE   SOCIAL    EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

ers,  for  the  most  part,  in  the  higher  institutions  of  learning, 

they  may  be  regarded  as  the  moral  as  well  as  the  intellectual 

leaders  of  the  country.    This  fact  may  be  placed  alongside  the 

Bother  fact  he  states,  that  he  does  not  see  how  it  is  possible  "to 

/avoid  the  conclusion  that  disbelief  in  a  personal  God  and  in 
personal  immortality  is  directly  proportional  to  abilities  mak- 
ing for  success  in  the  sciences  in  question."  He  more  fully 
states  the  conclusions  of  his  research  by  saying  that  it  "shows 
that  in  every  class  of  persons  investigated  the  number  of  be- 
lievers in  God  is  less,  and  in  most  classes  very  much  less  than 
the  number  of  non-believers,  and  that  the  number  of  believers 
in  immortality  is  somewhat  larger  than  in  a  personal  God; 
that  among  the  more  distinguished,  unbelief  is  very  much  more 
frequent  than  among  the  less  distinguished;  and  finally  that 
not  only  the  degree  of  ability,  but  also  the  kind  of  knowledge 
possessed,  is  significantly  related  to  the  rejection  of  these 
belief  s." 

The  tenth  chapter  of  his  book  is  devoted  by  Leuba  to  the 
consideration  of  the  cause  of  the  growing  unbelief  which  he 
has  statistically  investigated.  He  finds  that  cause  in  the  in- 

I  dlvidualism  which  has  been  rapidly  growing  in  modern  society, 
and  in  the  consequent  break  with  the  traditions  of  the  past.  He 
finds  in  the  gain  in  independence  among  college  and  university 
students,  as  they  advance  in  their  studies,  the  cause  of  their 
growing  skepticism.  When  their  minds  awaken  they  refuse 
longer  to  be  bound  by  what  in  youth  seemed  satisfactory  be- 
cause it  had  been  taught  them  in  childhood.  The  reaction  of 

\  all  growing  minds  from  childish  conceptions  naturally  leads 
to  this  growth  of  the  rebellious  spirit,  the  free  spirit  of  in- 
quiry, the  demand  for  what  will  satisfy  the  intellect  rather 
than  the  emotional  nature.  The  recognition  also  comes,  that 
the  knowledge  imparted  by  science  and  culture  is  not  in 

[344] 


THE   SOCIAL    EVOLUTION    OF   RELIGION 

harmony  with  the  religious  teachings  received  in  the  years  be- 
fore serious  study  began. 

Leuba  inquires  why  there  are  among  college  students 
82  per  cent,  of  women  who  are  believers,  and  only  56  per 
cent,  of  men.  He  points  out  that  they  belong  to  the  same 
classes,  hear  the  same  teachers,  read  the  same  books,  and 
imbibe  the  same  knowledge.  "The  main  cause  of  the  dif- 
ference,'7 he  thinks,  "is  to  be  found  in  the  greater  readiness  of 
men  to  break  from  tradition/'  It  may  be  inquired,  however, 
why  men  break  with  tradition  more  readily  than  women;  and 
the  answer  is  to  be  found  in  what  is  fundamental  to  sex  itself. 
It  cannot  be  assumed  that  the  mind  of  woman  is  merely  a 
duplicate  of  the  mind  of  man ;  and  in  saying  this  it  is  not  neces- 
sary to  assume,  in  the  least  degree,  that  the  mind  of  woman 
is  weaker  or  less  capable  than  that  of  man.  The  difference  is 
not  one  of  capacity,  but  of  emphasis,  of  temperament,  of  that 
to  which  a  woman  gives  the  preference.  Recognizing  this  con- 
stitutional difference,  it  is  possible  to  make  it  of  too  great  im- 
portance, and  thereby  to  ignore  the  social  and  educational  man- 
ner in  which  women  have  been  brought  to  look  at  the  world 
in  quite  another  manner  than  that  of  men.  While  there  is  a 
natural  difference,  undoubtedly,  the  artificial  variation  has 
been  assiduously  cultivated,  and  makes  up  most  of  the  manly 
and  womanly  characteristics. 

It  may  be  seriously  questioned  whether  there  is  any  fun- 
damental intellectual  difference  between  men  and  women,  as 
such.  As  just  now  suggested,  the  difference  is  much  more  truly 
artificial  than  natural.  What  is  meant  is,  that  the  educational 
processes  used  for  women  are  other  than  those  used  for  men. 
The  wide-reaching  and  long-continued  barring  of  women  from 
all  truly  intellectual  training  has  not  as  yc4-  been  put  aside  in 
any  degree  approaching  equality  for  the  two  sexes.  If  boys 

[345] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

and  girls,  men  and  women,  are  educated  side  by  side,  yet  to 
a  very  large  degree  the  trend  of  social  influences  is  in  favor 
of  quite  another  sort  of  intellectual  attitude  for  women  than 
that  for  men.  If  educational  processes  approach  in  some 
measure  the  same  training  for  the  two  sexes,  the  standards 
set  up  by  society,  and  especially  in  as  far  as  they  have  been 
inherited  from  the  traditions  of  the  past,  demand  for  women 
another  quality  of  life,  another  manner  of  thinking,  than  that 
assigned  to  men  as  natural  to  them.  Perhaps,  it  is  not  going 
too  far  to  assume  that  the  whole  of  the  difference  between  the 
two  sexes,  as  indicated  in  the  above  statistics,  has  its  origin  in 
this  superimposed  mental  attitude  for  women.  Society  has 
not  yet  come  to  the  position  of  liberating  women  to  freedom  of 
thought,  to  entire  self-direction  in  all  their  affairs,  and  to  the 
forming  their  own  opinions  in  regard  to  religion.  Until  it  has 
done  so,  women  will  remain  under  the  domination  of  the  sex 
consciousness,  in  religion  as  elsewhere. 

Turning  to  the  causes  for  the  greater  unbelief  of  men  of 
superior  knowledge  and  ability,  Leuba  finds  it  in  their  greater 
independence,  their  disposition  to  think  more  freely,  and  their 
marked  individuality.  It  is  not  merely  greater  knowledge  in 
itself,  however,  which  makes  these  men  more  skeptical;  but 
rather  it  is  to  be  attributed  "to  certain  temperamental  quali- 
ties or  energies  which  make  it  relatively  easy  for  them  to  rid 
themselves  of  much  of  the  social  pressure  to  which  others 
yield. "  Such  men  are  also  likely  to  find  about  them  associ- 
ates who  do  not  demand  what  is  orthodox,  and  aid  them  in 
warding  off  those  traditional  demands  which  compel  others 
to  conform  to  what  society  regards  as  truth.  More  than  all 
else,  in  Leuba 's  opinion,  is  the  fact  that  such  men  "are,  on  the 
whole,  distinguish  ^J  among  their  colleagues  for  activity,  ten- 
acity, initiative,  and  self-reliance.  Of  these  qualities,  at  least 

[346] 


THE   SOCIAL    EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

the  last  two  tend  to  resist  the  forces  of  authority  and  of 
prestige,  as  well  as  to  increase  knowledge. " 

The  conclusion  which  Leuba  reaches,  in  the  final  summing 
up  of  his  investigations,  is  one  of  great  importance.  It  sug- 
gests much  in  regard  to  the  future  of  religion.  "The  situation 
demanded  by  the  present  statistical  studies,"  he  says,  "de- 
mands a  revision  of  public  opinion  regarding  the  prevalence 
and  the  future  of  the  two  cardinal  beliefs  of  official  Christian- 
ity; and  shows  the  futility  of  the  efforts  of  those  who  would 
meet  the  present  religious  crisis  by  devising  a  more  efficient 
organization  and  co-operation  of  the  churches,  or  more  at- 
tractive social  features,  or  even  a  more  complete  consecration 
of  the  church  membership  to  its  task.  The  essential  problem 
facing  organized  Christianity  is  constituted  by  the  wide- 
spread rejection  of  its  two  fundamental  dogmas  —  a  rejection 
apparently  destined  to  extend  parallel  with  the  diffusion  of 
knowledge  and  the  moral  qualities  that  make  for  eminence  in 
scholarly  pursuits." 

Ill 

Leuba 's  investigations  have  led  him  to  the  conclusion  that 
the  desire  for  immortality  is  far  from  being  universal.  Even 
some  who  believe  in  it  have  no  earnest  wish  for  the  continua- 
tion of  the  individual  life,  and  others  distinctly  prefer  that 
life  should  come  to  an  end.  The  Buddhist  doctrine  of  nirvana, 
cessation  of  struggle  and  material  interests,  with  absolute  rest 
and  quiescence,  is  by  no  means  unattractive  to  persons  of  west- 
ern countries.  Investigations  suggested  by  F.  C.  S.  Schiller, 
and  carried  out  by  the  American  Society  for  Psychical  Re- 
search, published  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Society  for  Psychi- 
cal Research,  in  1904,  volume  18,  as  well  as  discussed  in  Schil- 

[347] 


THE   SOCIAL    EVOLUTION   OF   KELIGION 

ler's  book  on  Humanism,  fully  confirm  these  conclusions.  In 
reply  to  this  questionnaire,  the  Society  received  3321  answers, 
and  of  these  40  per  cent,  only  "had  never  entertained  a  doubt, 
or  had  trained  themselves  to  regard  a  future  life  as  certain, 
and  then  dismissed  the  matter  from  their  minds. "  Many 
persons  were  very  decidedly  of  the  opinion  that  they  did  not 
believe  in  immortality  or  had  no  desire  for  a  continued  future 
existence.  Schiller  finds,  in  his  book  on  Humanism,  that  "it 
is  just  because  the  religious  doctrines  of  immortality  are  not 
taken  as  fact  that  they  are  accepted."  He  goes  on  to  say: 
"Hence  the  religious  doctrines  with  respect  to  the  future  life 
form  a  part  of  paper  currency,  inconvertible  with  facts,  which 
suits  people  and  circulates  because  of  its  very  badness.  Their 
function  is  to  conjure  up  pleasing  and  consoling  visions  when- 
ever we  are  in  the  mood  for  them,  to  provide  a  brighter  back- 
ground for  life  than  sheer  extinction ;  but  they  are  not  allowed 
to  grow  insistent  enough  seriously  to  affect  action. " 

In  the  statistics  gathered  by  Schiller  only  22  per  cent,  out 

of  3321  persons  had  a  real  desire  for  a  scientific  knowledge 

of  the  future  life;  23  per  cent,  preferred  to  accept  the  future 

on  a  basis  of  faith  alone,  12.9  per  cent,  preferred  to  remain  in 

a  state  of  ignorance  in  regard  to  the  other  life,  while  3.3  per 

cent,  were  indifferent.    A  large  number  of  persons,  according 

>  to  Schiller's  report,  express  themselves  to  this  effect:     "At 

//present,  belief  in  immortality  plays  a  very  small  part  in  my 

experience  or  motives;  I  leave  it  indefinite,  though  I  rather 

feel  it  is  true." 

Schiller  says  that  1314  out  of  the  3321  report  that  they 
find  it  necessary  to  their  comfort  to  feel  that  immortality  is 
true.  A  majority  of  those  answering,  however,  report  that  the 
desire  for  a  continued  life  would  not  add  to  their  satisfaction 
with  life.  Schiller  subjected  the  returns  from  the  questionnaire 

[348] 


THE   SOCIAL    EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

to  a  rigid  scrutiny,  and,  though  on  the  face  of  the  returns  a 
majority,  or  1706  out  of  3218,  were  in  favor  of  having  a  positive 
knowledge  in  regard  to  the  future,  many  showed  themselves 
negative  or  indifferent  in  regard  to  the  subject,  who  answered 
in  the  affirmative.  Those  who  would  like  to  know  that  there 
is  no  future  life  were  225  in  number;  those  who  had  but  a 
slight  or  doubtful  desire,  123 ;  those  wishing  to  know  but  think 
knowledge  impossible,  64.  This  reduces  the  majority  to  a 
minority  of  1294,  who  have  a  desire  to  know  that  man  is  im- 
mortal. The  final  result  of  the  analysis  is,  that  681  out  of  3218, 
or  rather  over  21  per  cent.,  "may  be  credited  with  a  real  desire 
for  scientific  knowledge  of  the  possibility  of  a  future  life." 
To  this  statement  should  be  added  the  conclusion  that  only  22 
per  cent.,  or  739  out  of  3321,  have  a  desire  for  "a  future  life 
at  all  costs."  Schiller  adds  that  "it  turns  out  that  not  only 
is  a  real  desire  for  the  heaven  of  what  used  to  be  thought 
orthodoxy  decidedly  rare,  but  that  a  good  many  actually  have 
so  strong  an  objection  to  it  that  they  assert  they  would  prefer 
annihilation. ' ' 

The  purpose  of  this  investigation  by  the  Society  for  Psy- 
chical Research,  suggested  by  Schiller,  and  the  results  worked 
out  by  him  in  a  lengthy  report,  was  to  ascertain  what  was  the 
probable  proportion  of  the  population  desiring  a  scientific 
knowledge  in  regard  to  a  future  life,  such  as  the  Society  aimed 
to  secure,  if  possible.  Schiller  was  of  the  opinion  that  there 
was  necessary  a  social  demand  for  such  knowledge  or  it  would 
be  impossible  to  secure  it,  however  zealous  and  laborious  might 
be  the  efforts  of  a  few  researchers.  The  traditional  opinion, 
often  repeated  from  the  pulpit  and  elsewhere,  that  there  is  a 
great  eagerness  in  regard  to  the  future,  and  that  this  desire 
is  not  only  nearly  universal,  but  one  that  causes  much  anguish, 
appears  not  to  be  true.  Schiller  reports  "that  the  returns 

[349] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

show  comparatively  little  evidence  of  great  spiritual  revolu- 
tions, and  still  less  of  any  considerable  or  lasting  mental  an- 
guish connected  with  them.  The  apparent  absence  of  any 
widespread  spiritual  distress  is  certainly  very  striking  and  sur- 
prising, though  here  again  this  might  perhaps  have  been  in- 
ferred from  the  surface  indications  of  general  placidity  and 
contentment.  It  would  seem  that  spiritual  crisis  and  prolonged 
religious  excitements  are  the  prerogative  of  exceptional  tem- 
peraments; ordinary  persons  seem  to  adjust  themselves  easily 
and  rapidly  to  their  definitive  attitude. " 

Schiller  recognizes  that  the  number  of  answers  procured 
was  too  small  to  make  the  returns  secure  a  decisive  test  as  to 
the  extent  of  the  desire  for  immortality  in  the  general  popula- 
tion. He  also  recognizes  that,  owing  to  the  questionnaire  reach- 
ing a  large  proportion  of  psychical  researchers  and  spiritual- 
ists, the  figures  given  are  in  larger  proportion  affirmative  than 
would  otherwise  be  the  case.  He  is  of  the  opinion,  also,  that 
the  returns  do  not  prove  that  the  problem  of  the  future  life 
has  always  been  indifferent  to  those  who  are  but  little  or  not 
at  all  concerned  about  it  at  the  present  time.  On  this  phase 
of  the  problem  he  says :  *  *  Some  consideration  surely  is  due  to 
those  who  would  sincerely  like  to  know,  and  to  whom  the  lack 
of  knowledge  causes  grave  distress.  I  have  admitted,  and  even 
emphasized,  that  at  any  given  time  they  form  a  minority,  it 
may  be  a  small  minority.  But  there  is  also  evidence  to  show 
that  at  some  time  or  other  in  their  lives  a  large  majority  pass 
through  a  period  when  the  mystery  of  existence  oppresses 
their  spirits  and  torments  them  with  fears  and  perplexities 
which  real  knowledge  would  almost  certainly  show  to  be 
groundless.  It  is  true,  no  doubt,  that  such  periods  of  anxiety 
seem  usually  to  be  short,  and  that  after  a  few  years  people 

[350] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

find  quite  comfortable  beliefs  which  at  first  had  seemed  quite 
unbearable. ' ' 

In  his  eleventh  chapter  Leuba  brings  together  the  opinions 
of  a  number  of  eminent  men  and  women  of  our  time,  all  of 
whom  are  largely  indifferent  to  the  beliefs  in  God  and  im- 
mortality or  entirely  reject  them.  These  include  Eenan, 
George  Eliot,  John  Addington  Symonds,  William  McDougall, 
and  others.  For  instance,  McDougall  says  in  his  book  on 
Body  and  Mind :  "I  can  lay  claim  to  no  religious  convictions ;  I 
am  not  aware  of  any  strong  desire  for  any  continuance  of  my 
personality  after  death;  and  I  could  accept  with  equanimity 
a  thorough-going  materialism,  if  that  seemed  to  me  the  inevit- 
able outcome  of  a  dispassionate  and  critical  reflection.  Never- 
theless, I  am  in  sympathy  with  the  religious  attitude  towards 
life ;  and  I  should  welcome  the  establishment  of  sure  empirical 
foundations  for  the  belief  that  human  personality  is  not  wholly 
destroyed  by  death." 

Leuba  cites  the  opinions  of  a  large  number  of  the  men 
and  women  who  responded  to  his  questions,  showing  that  they 
either  rejected  these  beliefs  or  were  of  the  opinion  that  they 
had  no  direct  bearing  on  their  conduct  or  on  their  concep- 
tions of  human  duty  and  responsibility.  Some  of  these  are  of 
^great  interest  because  of  their  frankness,  their  indications  of 
a  disturbed  mind  or  their  desire  to  believe  what  had  become 
impossible  of  acceptance. 

An  interesting  indication  of  the  present-day  trend  of 
thought  and  desire  in  regard  to  immortality  may  be  found  in 
the  Easter  number,  1918,  of  the  Universalist  Leader,  published 
in  Boston.  The  editor  asked  a  number  of  representative  peo- 
ple who  are  leaders  in  their  various  fields  to  express  for  pub- 
lication their  opinions  in  regard  to  immortality.  Of  the  nine 
answers  published,  three  express  a  very  definite  disbelief  in 

[351] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

this  doctrine.  For  instance,  John  Burroughs  wrote:  "I  see 
no  more  grounds  for  belief  that  I  shall  live  again  than  that  my 
dog  or  the  grass  or  the  trees  will  live  again.  They  and  we  live 
in  our  descendants.  It  is  life  that  is  immortal,  and  not  the  in- 
dividual manifestations  of  it." 

There  can  be  no  question  but  that  this  point  of  view  is 
being  found  satisfactory  to  a  considerable  number  of  thinking 
men  and  women.  This  is  the  answer  of  Charlotte  Perkins  Gil- 
man:  "  Personal  immortality  may  or  may  not  be  true,  I  know 
nothing  about  it.  It  is  an  idea  which  has  never  interested  me 
in  the  slightest  degree.  My  whole  hope,  love,  purpose  and 
work  pours  along  the  line  of  what  I  do  know  —  the  continuity 
of  the  human  race  on  earth ;  its  boundless  capacity  for  growth, 
improvement  and  happiness;  and  our  power  to  build  that 
splendid  future.  We  shall  make  better  progress  in  this  world 
when  we  outgrow  our  selfish  grasping  after  another  one." 

IV 

Turning  back  once  again  to  James  H.  Leuba's  book  on 
The  Belief  in  God  and  Immortality,  we  must  recognize  that 
no  more  important  work  has  been  published  in  our  time.  It 
does  not  assert  that  religion  is  prospering,  as  is  so  often  done 
by  those  less  well  informed,  and  that  there  has  been  a  com- 
plete reconciliation  between  religion  and  science,  that  the 
skepticisms  of  a  half-century  ago  have  ceased  to  vex  believing 
minds,  or  that  all  the  great  critics  of  religion  of  that  time  have 
disappeared,  and  have  no  successors.  These  assertions  seem  to 
be  made  for  the  same  reason  that  a  boy  whistles  when  passing 
a  dark  wood,  in  order  to  keep  up  his  courage.  They  have  been 
repeated  with  such  frequency,  and  with  such  persistence,  that 
many  have  come  to  believe  them  true.  As  Leuba  has  conclu- 

[352] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

sively  shown,  they  are  not  true.  It  might  be  added,  that 
in  a  time  like  ours,  when  the  spirit  of  free  inquiry  is  abroad, 
when  thinkers  are  searching  heavens  and  earth  for  facts  and 
their  laws,  it  is  impossible  that  they  should  be  true.  All  that 
can  be  said  is,  that  such  men  as  Huxley,  Haeckel,  Matthew 
Arnold,  and  their  confreres,  have  had  no  immediate  successors. 
The  reason  for  this  is  to  be  found  in  the  situation  produced 
by  the  publication  of  Darwin's  Descent  of  Man,  and  the  neces- 
sity for  the  interpretation  and  defense  of  the  doctrine  of 
evolution.  That  great  occasion  having  passed  by,  with  the 
general  acceptance  of  evolution  and  what  it  implies,  religiously 
and  socially,  there  has  been  no  further  occasion  that  the  con- 
troversy then  developed  should  be  prolonged.  The  successors 
to  Darwin,  Huxley,  and  Haeckel  have  had  other  work  than 
to  criticize  the  old  religious  traditions  or  to  show  wherein  they 
no  longer  fit  into  the  needs  of  the  present  time.  They  have 
been  investigating  vast  fields  of  research  opened  up  by  the 
work  of  Darwin  and  his  associates,  broadening  the  spirit  and 
the  conclusions  of  evolution,  and  fitting  it  to  meet  the  demands 
of  all  phases  of  modern  life.  Therefore,  they  have  not  fol- 
lowed Huxley  or  Haeckel,  who  did  a  highly  important  work 
for  their  time ;  but  the  newer  time  has  required  other  methods 
and  wiser  conclusions. 

The  investigations  of  Leuba  and  Schiller,  as  well  as  several 
others,  are  highly  important  because  they  show  what  is  the  at- 
titude of  thinking  men  in  our  own  day.  We  have  here  not 
mere  assertions  of  those  who  wish  that  what  they  assert  may 
be  true;  but  facts  which  cannot  be  turned  aside  from  with 
mere  denial.  What  do  they  signify  ?  In  what  manner  are  they 
to  be  accepted?  Evidently  they  are  too  serious  to  be  dismissed 

[353] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  EELIGION 

with  indifference  or  to  be  turned  aside  from  because  we  dare 
not  face  their  full  import. 

Any  large  and  broad-minded  study  of  present-day  reli- 
gious tendencies  must  bring  home  to  us  the  fact  that  men  and 
women  are  no  longer  accepting  the  old  beliefs  in  the  spirit  of 
docility  and  unquestioning  trust,  such  as  was  characteristic  of 
those  of  two  or  three  generations  ago.  If  the  secularists,  free- 
thinkers, and  atheists  are  not  now  largely  organized,  or  mak- 
ing themselves  heard  with  frequency,  and  much  assertion  of 
their  skepticisms,  it  seems  that  it  is  not  because  their  kind  has 
disappeared  from  modern  society.  Apparently,  if  we  are  to 
believe  Leuba  and  Schiller,  their  number  has  greatly  increased, 
and  among  the  better  educated  rather  than  among  the  more 
ignorant  members  of  society.  What  appears  to  be  the  actual 
situation  is,  that  these  classes  are  so  far  indifferent  in  regard 
to  the  beliefs  of  religion,  that  they  do  not  organize  or  take  the 
trouble  to  assert  or  to  defend  their  opinions. 

If  we  turn  to  a  book  which  has  been  widely  read  and  much 
discussed  in  recent  years,  Henri  Bergson 's  Creative  Evolution, 
we  shall  find  a  new  and  most  suggestive  interpretation  of  life 
with  reference  to  its  fundamental  cause.  To  Bergson  this 
cause  is  not  that  of  an  arbitrary  will,  a  supernatural  being,  or 
a  God  standing  on  the  outside  and  projecting  the  universe  into 
space.  He  sees  all  life  as  a  process,  a  movement,  a  develop- 
ment and  an  evolution,  with  its  causes  in  its  own  nature,  ever 
active,  an  ever  unfolding  process.  Life,  Bergson  declares, 
transcends  all  the  categories  of  the  old  manner  of  thinking,  and 
is  something  vital,  natural,  ever  proceeding.  Nature  and 
humanity  are  not  apart  from  each  other  or  antagonistic,  but 
parts  of  one  whole,  phases  of  a  great  proceeding  activity,  one 
triumphant  march  forward  of  the  eternal  sources  of  being. 
Accordingly,  individuality  and  society  proceed  together,  are 

[354] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

but  phases  of  one  continuing  process,  ever  working  themselves 
out  together  to  higher  and  higher  conclusions.  Therefore, 
Bergson  says  that  God  "has  nothing  of  the  ready  made;  he  is 
unceasing  life,  action,  freedom.  Creation,  so  conceived,  is  not 
a  mystery;  we  experience  it  ourselves  when  we  act  freely." 
Who  can  object  to  such  a  conception  of  God?  If  the  full 
significance  of  such  a  God  were  clearly  placed  before  them, 
probably  most  of  Leuba's  skeptics  would  not  turn  from  him. 
What  they  have  not  been  able  to  believe  in  is  the  traditional 
God,  the  deity  having  his  origin  in  animism  and  supported  by 
mediaeval  metaphysics,  that  is,  by  abstractions  and  anthro- 
pomorphic interpretations  of  a  visible  concrete  deity  some- 
where in  the  heavens. 


It  is  interesting  to  place  by  the  side  of  Leuba's  book  two 
little  volumes  by  Francis  Younghusband,  an  English  explorer, 
administrator  and  soldier,  who  led  the  British  expedition  of 
1904  into  Thibet.  At  a  later  time  he  was  struck  down  by  a 
motor-car,  and  for  months  lingered  between  life  and  death. 
During  his  period  of  convalescence  he  had  an  opportunity  to 
think  about  the  problems  of  religion,  with  the  result  that  he 
wrote  the  little  book  entitled  Within:  Thoughts  During  Con- 
valescence, which  appeared  in  1914.  The  next  year  he  pub- 
lished Mutual  Influence:  A  Review  of  Religion.  What  is 
remarkable  about  these  little  books  is  their  tenderness,  their 
deep  human  sympathy,  their  poetical  elevation  and  gracious- 
ness,  and  their  highly  mystical  tone  on  the  part  of  a  soldier 
and  a  man  of  the  world.  Rejecting  all  which  is  usually  defined 
under  the  name  of  religion,  these  books  make  a  profoundly 
religious  impression.  Their  attitude  is  constructive,  inspiring, 

[355] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

and  humane.  The  note  is  not  one  of  skepticism,  but  one  of  be- 
lief. They  touch  the  deeper  emotions,  and  satisfy  the  heart 
as  well  as  the  mind. 

As  many  other  men  have  done,  Younghusband  found  in 
the  tenderness  and  devotion  of  his  wife,  during  his  prolonged 
convalescence,  the  basic  influence  giving  shape  and  meaning 
to  his  new  religious  beliefs.  Projecting,  as  it  were,  this  human 
sympathy  and  fellowship  into  the  universe,  he  found  his  con- 
ception of  God.  In  a  word,  his  God  was  not  that  of  Christian- 
ity or  any  other  historic  religion ;  but  that  of  humanity,  as  in- 
terpreted to  him  by  the  devotion  of  his  wife.  He  does  not  ig- 
nore the  harsh  and  cruel  phases  of  nature,  its  indifference  to 
human  welfare,  its  readiness  to  sweep  a  city  out  of  existence 
as  quickly  as  a  pebble  into  the  sea.  Therefore,  he  finds  in 
humanity  his  symbol  of  divinity,  and,  indeed,  his  conception 
of  the  only  God  which  has  any  meaning.  He  finds  that  there 
is  in  the  universe  a  mighty  world-spirit,  of  which  each  indi- 
vidual is  a  manifestation.  Loyalty  to  that  spirit  as  manifested 
in  ourselves,  true  manliness,  faith  in  that  life  working  in  our 
own  being  and  in  all  other  men  and  women,  this  is  the  true 
religion. 

Mutual  Influence  elaborates  these  ideas,  and  gives  them  a 
more  adequate  statement.  It  has  that  poetical  quality,  that 
mystic  tone,  that  breadth  of  sympathy,  that  humaneness,  and 
that  lofty  piety  of  the  modern  type,  which  must  make  it  at- 
tractive to  every  independent-thinking  mind  who  in  any  de- 
gree feels  an  interest  in  what  is  religious.  Rejecting  unquali- 
fiedly an  anthropomorphic  God,  Younghusband  finds  in  human- 
ity>  m  the  march  of  man  through  the  ages,  in  his  struggles  and 
his  aspirations,  in  his  conquests  over  himself  and  over  nature, 
in  his  growing  association  of  himself  with  his  fellows  in  a  great 
human  fellowship,  that  which  gives  a  satisfying  conception  of 

[356] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  KELIGION 

God  as  ever-present  in  the  world  and  as  ever-ready  to  give  the 
individual  sympathy  and  help.  "Any  individual  human  be- 
ing," says  Younghusband  in  his  eleventh  chapter,  "may  feel 
that  he  is  regarded  and  cared  for  by  that  Power  which  springs 
from  all  individual  units  in  the  universe  in  their  mutual  in- 
fluence upon  one  another. ' '  A  page  or  two  further  on  he  says 
again :  '  *  The  individual  may  have  confidence  that  God,  as 
herein  conceived,  though  he  be  no  separate  person  but  only 
the  personification  of  the  spirit  which  animates  all  individuals 
as  members  of  a  whole,  does,  in  truth,  regard,  care  for,  and 
even  love  him,  and  is  therefore  something  in  which  he  may 
place  his  faith  and  hope  and  trust,  and  love  as  surely  as  he 
would  love  his  country."  Again,  in  a  more  explicit  statement, 
at  the  beginning  of  the  concluding  chapter  of  the  book,  we 
read:  The  view  here  set  forward  "is  that  the  power  to  which 
any  individual  man  is  subjected  is  not  exercised  by  any  separ- 
ate personal  being  wholly  outside  men,  but  is  what  results  from 
the  mutual  influence  of  all  men,  and  of  all  the  component 
parts  of  the  universe,  however  small  they  may  be,  upon  one 
another;  and  which  these  units  are  able  to  exert  because  they 
all,  whether  atoms  or  men,  are  self-active  individuals  with 
properties  and  characteristics  of  their  own."  We  are  assured 
that  God  is  not  a  separate  person  any  more  than  France  is  a 
separate  person,  and  yet  the  Frenchman  loves  and  is  loyal  to 
France  as  something  ideal,  something  great  and  inspiring, 
something  to  which  he  can  give  his  utmost  of  loyalty  and  devo- 
tion. As  France  or  any  other  country  is  not  a  distinctly  per- 
sonal and  concrete  thing,  but  an  idea,  a  symbol,  and  a  tangible 
fact  not  the  less,  so  is  God,  though  no  more  personal  than  one 's 
country,  something  that  can  win  and  hold  our  loyalty.  We 
can  give  that  loyalty,  not  to  some  intangible  mythical  being 
in  the  heavens,  but  to  our  country  and  to  our  fellow-men, 

[357] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

"In  this  view,"  according  to  Younghusband,  "things  do  not 
consist  of  God,  man,  and  matter,  each  separate  and  distinct 
from  the  other.  They  form  rather  one  single,  inter-connected, 
and  intimately  related  whole;  a  whole  which  is  in  process, 
in  process  of  betterment,  and  which  is  animated  by  a  spirit 
issuing  from  the  parts,  but  which  in  turn  fashions  and  moulds 
them,  making  and  remaking  the  same  material  over  and  over 
again,  but  itself  enduring  continuously  and  being  continually 
bettered." 

It  may  seem  to  those  who  have  been  trained  to  accept  the 
idea  of  an  anthropomorphic  God  or  the  God  of  metaphysics 
and  theology,  that  Younghusband  is  giving  them  nothing 
more  than  a  shadow  for  the  reality,  that  his  God  cannot  work 
miracles  or  answer  prayer  or  come  into  the  world  for  the  re- 
demption of  men.  The  striking  fact  is,  that  having  been  taught 
all  this,  and  having  heard  it  from  his  youth  up,  and  having  had 
great  adventures,  seen  much  of  men  and  of  the  causes  which 
direct  the  actions  of  nations,  he  turns  from  it  all,  and  under 
conditions  of  the  utmost  distress,  when  he  is  face  to  face  with 
death,  finds  for  himself  what  he  regards  as  a  larger  and  saner 
conception  of  religion,  and  of  the  moving  forces  which  control 
the  world  and  the  actions  of  men.  He  clearly  says  that  the 
power  he  has  actually  found  working  in  the  affairs  of  men  and 
nations  is  not  the  hand  of  an  Almighty  God  resident  in  the 
heavens,  but  is  an  influence  issuing  from  men  themselves,  from 
the  earth  from  which  they  spring,  and  from  the  whole  uni- 
verse of  which  the  earth  and  men  are  only  a  part. 

So  far  from  thinking  that  this  faith  of  his  will  make  the 
world  dark  and  the  grave  forbidding,  Younghusband  closes 
his  second  book  on  a  note  of  aspiring  faith  and  triumphant 
conviction.  They  who  have  acquired  truly  this  faith,  he  as- 
sures his  readers,  will  be  caught  up  in  the  rush  of  the  uni- 

[358] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION   OF  KELIGION 

versal  spirit,  and  will  be  filled  with  a  love  of  their  kind  which 
will  cause  them,  with  something  like  maternal  instinct,  to 
stretch  far  forward  and  sacrifice  the  best  that  they  can  make 
themselves,  for  the  good  of  the  future  it  is  their  part  to  create. 
This  is  the  triumphant  note  with  which  he  brings  to  an' 
end  his  religious  interpretation  of  what  may  be  called  a  re- 
ligion of  humanity:  "When  the  generality  of  men  have  ab- 
sorbed into  their  minds  what  has  long  been  in  the  minds  of 
great  thinkers,  that  the  power  which  so  influences  their  lives 
is  within  the  world  and  within  themselves,  and  that  it  is  on 
themselves  therefore  that  they  must  rely;  when  this  idea  has 
saturated  the  literature,  the  music,  the  art,  the  hymns,  the 
prayers  of  the  people,  and  when  the  whole  atmosphere  in  which 
they  are  brought  up  is  one  of  reliance  of  men  on  themselves, 
of  faith  in  the  spirit  within  them  and  of  pride  in  a  destiny 
which  lies  in  their  own  keeping,  then  men  will  no  longer  feel 
the  need  of  the  comfort  which  belief  that  they  are  shielded  and 
nurtured  by  some  invisible  God  affords.  They  will  feel  erect 
and  self-supporting,  and  by  a  greater  reliance  on  themselves 
they  will  have  acquired  that  firmness  of  purpose  so  necessary 
for  great  achievements,  and  that  strength  of  character  without 
which  it  would  be  impossible  to  bear  the  burden  of  responsibil- 
ity which  the  new  freedom  will  entail." 


In  Mr.  Britling  Sees  It  Through,  Herbert  George  Wells  ex- 
pressed himself  with  some  emphasis  in  regard  to  the  nature  of 
God,  declaring  that,  if  there  were  any  such  being  as  the  the- 
ologians describe,  he  would  bring  the  great  world-war  to  an 
end.  He  went  on  to  say  that  God  is  finite,  that  he  struggles  as 
men  struggle,  and  that  he  is  human  with  love  and  tenderness 

[359] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

as  men  are  human.  If  God  is  to  be  anything  to  men,  says  Mr. 
Britling,  he  must  be  limited  and  defined  as  men  are.  The 
young  men,  on  both  sides,  who  had  lost  their  lives  in  the  great 
struggle  of  nations,  were  declared  to  be  with  God,  and  God 
present  tenderly  with  them. 

The  reviewers  immediately  said  that  H.  G.  Wells,  who  had 
hitherto  been  indifferent  to  religion,  had  now,  on  account  of 
the  war,  been  awakened  to  its  meaning  and  its  importance. 
The  fact  is,  however,  that  in  First  and  Last  Things:  A  Con- 
fession of  Faith  and  Rule  of  Life,  published  in  1908,  six  years 
before  the  war  began,  Wells  gave  a  concise  statement  of  his 
philosophical  and  religious  beliefs.  Nothing  which  has  ap- 
peared in  God  the  Invisible  King  or  any  of  his  other  later 
books  was  absent  from  that  one,  at  least  in  general  outline. 
Some  of  his  arguments  are  given  in  greater  detail,  and  he  has 
elaborated  on  some  of  them;  but  all  the  essentials  are  in  that 
earlier  work.  In  that  work,  writing  of  belief,  he  says  that  the 
universe  must  have  a  meaning,  that  it  must  show  forth  order 
and  co-ordination,  and  that  there  is  in  it  an  ultimate  Tightness 
and  significance  of  meaning. 

Wells  goes  on  to  say  that  he  is  greatly  attracted  by  the 
phrases  in  which  the  personal  purpose  of  the  universe  is  ex- 
pressed, and  is  not  averse  to  declaring  his  belief  in  God.  Yet 
he  immediately  remarks  that  we  can  occasionally  best  serve 
the  God  of  truth  by  denying  him.  He  confesses,  however,  that 
the  sense  of  personality  in  the  universe  is  very  strong.  He 
adds:  "If  I  am  confessing,  I  do  not  see  why  I  should  not  con- 
fess up  to  the  hilt.  At  times  in  the  silence  of  the  night  and  in 
rare  lonely  moments,  I  come  upon  a  sort  of  communion  of  my- 
self and  something  that  is  not  myself.  It  is  perhaps  poverty 
of  mind  and  language  obliges  me  to  say  then  this  universal 
scheme  takes  on  the  effect  of  a  sympathetic  person  —  and  my 

[360] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

communion  a  quality  of  fearless  worship.  These  moments  hap- 
pen and  they  are  the  supreme  fact  in  my  religious  life  to  me, 
they  are  the  crown  of  my  religious  experiences. ' ' 

It  is  evident,  however,  that  Wells  is  not  here  speaking  of 
the  metaphysical  and  theological  God  of  the  churches,  but  of 
an  imaginative  being,  an  ideal  of  humanity,  the  projection  of 
the  trend  of  the  whole  of  human  life  through  the  ages.  The 
race  flows  through  us,  and  what  God  means  is  that  the  species 
lives  in  us,  a  continuous  flow  of  a  controlling  and  sustaining  life. 
Wells  confesses  that  this  idea  may  seem  vague  and  indefinite; 
but  he  adds  that  it  is  mystical,  and  therefore  all  the  more  sug- 
gestive and  inspiring.  He  believes  that  even  he  may  contribute 
to  the  forming  of  that  great  being,  as  all  men  have  been  doing 
throughout  the  ages.  In  the  world  of  both  man  and  nature 
he  finds  beauty,  and  that  is  the  true  revelation  of  God.  There 
is  also  power,  and  that,  somehow,  is  one  with  beauty.  These 
two  are  in  all  the  universe,  and  they  give  life  its  meaning.  His 
statement  is  this:  " Things  move  to  power  and  beauty;  I  say 
that  much,  and  I  have  said  all  that  I  can  say." 

Wells  says  very  positively  that  he  does  not  believe  in  im- 
mortality, that  there  is  no  abiding  of  the  individual  apart  from 
the  life  of  the  species,  and  of  those  things  which  belong  to  all 
men  in  common.  His  position  on  this  subject  he  states  in  these 
words :  ' '  I  am  not  the  continuing  thing.  I  personally  am  ex- 
perimental, incidental.  I  feel  I  have  to  do  something,  a  num- 
ber of  things  no  one  else  could  do,  and  then  I  am  finished  and 
finished  altogether.  Then  my  substance  returns  to  the  com- 
mon lot." 

These  statements  will  make  it  clear  that  neither  Mr.  Brit- 
ling  Sees  It  Through  nor  God  the  Invisible  King  has  anything 
essential  to  add  to  what  had  been  written  in  the  earlier  book. 
Few  read  First  and  Last  Things  because  it  was  a  philosophical 

[361] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION   OF  RELIGION 

work,  many  read  Mr.  Britling  because  it  was  a  novel  of  great 
power.  Many  also  read  God  the  Invisible  King,  because  fol- 
lowing immediately  after  Mr.  Britling,  and  being  written  in 
a  manner  nearly  approaching  the  novel,  it  was  widely  dis- 
cussed. In  the  preface  to  God  the  Invisible  King,  Wells  says 
that  he  does  not  believe  in  orthodox  Christianity,  and  that  he 
does  not  accept  Christianity  in  any  of  its  forms.  He  especially 
rejects  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  and  condemns  in  the  sever- 
est terms  the  Nicene  creed  and  those  who  constructed  it.  He 
rejects  all  the  creeds  explicitly  and  frankly,  does  not  attempt 
to  conceal  his  indignation  at  the  role  which  has  been  played  by 
the  Christian  dogmas,  and  the  manner  in  which  they  have 
been  through  all  Christian  ages  obscuring,  perverting  and 
preventing  the  religious  life  of  mankind. 

Wells  expresses  complete  agnosticism  with  reference  to 
God  the  creator,  and  calls  this  the  Veiled  Being,  because  of 
our  entire  lack  of  any  real  knowledge  with  regard  to  him. 
His  belief  is  in  God  the  Redeemer,  who  is  finite,  human,  grow- 
ing, and  the  projection  of  man's  hopes  and  ideals  into  a  great 
constructive  idea.  God  is  not  a  person  who  can  be  seen  and 
handled,  and  he  is  in  no  sense  concrete  and  physically  real. 
God  is  youth  and  God  is  love;  by  which  Wells  means  to  say 
that  God  is  at  once  finite  and  developing,  something  not  fin- 
ished, but  advancing  with  the  growing  life  of  humanity. 

In  many  places  throughout  his  book  Wells  presents  re- 
ligion and  God  as  something  very  real,  the  greatest  things 
there  are.  Sometimes  the  reader  may  be  inclined  to  think  he 
has  gone  back  to  the  old  beliefs  and  the  old  faith,  with  such 
apparent  enthusiasm  and  conviction  does  he  use  the  terms  of 
the  churches.  However,  one  need  not  be  for  more  than  a 
moment  deceived  by  this  emphasis  laid  upon  the  importance 
of  the  religious  life,  and  the  joy  it  may  give  the  struggling 

[362] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

person.  In  fact,  he  is  from  first  to  last  presenting  a  great 
imaginative  conception  of  humanity  as  the  real  God,  humanity 
as  growing  through  the  ages,  and  coming  more  and  more  to 
serve  the  interests  of  all  its  aspiring  and  hoping  members. 
Whoever  will  read  page  61  of  God  the  Invisible  King  under- 
standingly,  in  connection  with  the  rest  of  the  book,  will  have 
no  doubt  that  Wells  means  that  the  true  God  is  the  human 
species  idealized.  It  is  not  merely  the  aggregate  of  the  indi- 
viduals who  have  lived,  and  do  live,  who  are  symbolized  by 
Wells  under  the  name  of  God ;  but  the  species  as  an  advancing 
development  of  the  highest  life  known  to  our  globe.  It  is  the 
species  as  one  continuous  movement,  subtly  knit  together  in  all 
its  members,  as  it  were,  into  one  organism,  one  great  life- 
force  forever  moving,  expanding,  becoming  more  and  more 
supreme  over  nature  and  the  forces  that  hinder  its  progress. 
This  is  Wells'  own  statement  of  what  he  conceives  God  to  be 
as  such  a  youth  and  such  a  being  of  love:  "Modern  religion 
declares  that  though  he  does  not  exist  in  matter  or  space,  he 
exists  in  time  just  as  a  current  of  thought  may  do;  that  he 
changes  and  becomes  more  even  as  a  man's  purpose  gathers 
itself  together ;  that  somewhere  in  the  dawning  of  mankind  he 
had  a  beginning,  an  awakening,  and  that  as  mankind  grows 
he^grows.  With  our  eyes  he  looks  out  upon  the  universe  he 
invades ;  with  our  hands  he  lays  hands  upon  it.  All  our  truth, 
all  our  intentions  and  achievements,  he  gathers  to  himself.  He 
is  the  underlying  human  memory,  the  increasing  human  will. 
But  this,  you  may  object,  is  no  more  than  saying  that  God  is 
the  collective  mind  and  purpose  of  the  human  race.  You  may 
declare  that  this  is  no  God,  but  merely  the  sum  of  mankind.  But 
those  who  believe  in  the  new  ideas  very  steadfastly  deny  that. 
God  is,  they  say,  not  an  aggregate  but  a  synthesis.  He  is  not 
merely  the  best  of  all  of  us,  but  a  Being  in  himself,  composed 

[363] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION   OF  RELIGION 

of  that  but  more  than  that,  as  a  temple  is  more  than  a  gather- 
ing of  stones,  or  a  regiment  is  more  than  an  accumulation  of 
men. ' ' 

This  God  who  is  humanity  idealized,  and  made  into  a 
great  symbol  of  power  and  beauty,  Wells  believes  may  be  ac- 
cepted as  having  a  divine  imperative,  which  he  is  called  upon 
to  obey  implicitly.  These  are  his  words:  "I  am  obeying  an 
irresistible  call,  I  am  a  humble  and  willing  servant  of  the 
righteousness  of  God."  Again,  in  his  fifth  chapter  he  makes 
more  clear  his  conception  of  the  ethical  force  the  invisible  God 
brings  to  bear  on  all  who  would  obey  his  will:  ''Its  implicit 
command  to  all  its  adherents  is  to  make  plain  the  way  to  the 
world  theocracy.  Its  rule  of  life  is  the  discovery  and  service 
of  the  will  of  God,  which  dwells  in  the  hearts  of  men,  and  the 
performance  of  that  will,  not  only  in  the  private  life  of  the 
believer  but  in  the  acts  and  order  of  the  state  and  nation  of 
which  he  is  a  part.  I  give  myself  to  God  not  only  because  I  am 
so  and  so  but  because  I  am  mankind.  I  become  in  a  measure 
responsible  for  every  evil  in  the  world  of  men.  I  become  a 
knight  in  God's  service.  I  become  my  brother's  keeper.  I  be- 
come a  responsible  minister  of  my  King.  I  take  sides  against 
injustice,  disorder,  and  against  those  temporal  kings,  emperors, 
princes,  landlords  and  owners,  who  set  themselves  up  against 
God's  rule  and  worship/' 

We  may  query  why  Wells  should  think  it  desirable  or 
necessary  to  apply  theological  terms  to  something  quite  dif- 
ferent from  that  to  which  they  have  been  applied  through  many 
ages.  We  may  think  it  confusing  rather  than  illuminating  to 
call  idealized  humanity  by  the  name  of  God.  We  should  not 
forget,  however,  that  it  is  precisely  this  very  process  by  which 
God  has  been  constructed  in  the  past,  and  that  he  is  essentially 
a  projection  of  what  man  is  individually  and  collectively  into 

[364] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION   OF  RELIGION 

the  great  spaces  of  the  universe.  The  history  of  the  unfolding 
of  religion  which  we  have  been  following  proves  this  to  have 
been  the  identical  process  through  which  all  gods  have  come 
into  existence,  and  have  their  meaning  for  mankind. 

Then,  it  is  not  to  be  forgotten  that  Wells  is  an  artist  of 
great  constructive  powers,  that  he  makes  use  of  a  vigorous 
creative  imagination,  and  that  he  has  dared  to  think  out  the 
new  problems  in  a  fearless  manner,  with  no  regard  to  the 
wishes  or  the  teachings  of  the  theologians  and  the  metaphysi- 
cians. He  rightly  says  that  he  speaks  for  many  others,  that  he 
is  not  setting  forth  his  own  private  views,  but  the  constructive 
ideas  which  are  surging  in  many  minds.  For  these  reasons  he 
has  a  right  to  speak,  and  his  message  is  worthy  of  the  most 
serious  consideration. 


We  may  now  give  consideration  to  the  religious  conclu- 
sions of  Emile  Durkheim,  the  greatest  sociologist  of  our  time, 
who  has  died  since  these  pages  were  written.  In  no  small  de- 
gree he  interprets  and  justifies  the  beliefs  of  H.  G.  Wells, 
though  the  one  may  have  known  nothing  of  the  writings  of  the 
other.  Durkheim  is  of  the  opinion  that  religion  is  the  most 
fundamental  and  primary  fact  in  human  life,  that  all  other 
phases  of  culture,  civilization,  and  science  have  evolved  out 
of  it.  He  finds  religion  beginning  in  the  social  life  of  man,  a 
result  of  his  collective  activities,  and  essentially  a  develop- 
ment from  his  social  interests.  It  is  not  a  product  of  individual 
genius,  but  of  the  collective  insight,  imaginative  vigor,  and 
constructive  enterprise  of  social  man.  Religion  is  directly  a 
manifestation  of  man's  social  interests,  a  product  of  his  social 
genius,  a  construction  of  his  social  creativeness. 

[365] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

In  the  opening  pages  of  The  Elementary  Forms  of  the  Re- 
ligious Life  (Les  Formes  elementaires  de  la  vie  religieuse), 
Durkheim  says  that  religion  is  something  eminently  social. 
He  turns  from  all  the  individualistic  interpretations  of  it,  and 
finds  that  they  do  not  accord  with  the  historical  facts,  either 
those  of  ethnology  or  those  of  psychology.  "Religious  repre- 
sentations/' he  proceeds  to  say,  "are  collective  representations 
which  express  collective  realities/'  He  refuses  to  think  that 
religious  rites  are  derived  from  divine  personalities.  He  as- 
sures us  that  religion  is  more  than  the  idea  of  gods  or  spirits, 
and  consequently  cannot  be  defined  exclusively  in  relation  to 
such  beings,  in  this  directly  contradicting  the  definition  of 
J.  G.  Frazer  already  given. 

Religion  appears  nowhere  except  as  an  expression  of  the 
central  life  of  a  group  of  men  and  women.  It  is  always  a  fam- 
ily, a  corporation  or  a  city  which  celebrates  a  religious  rite, 
never  a  solitary  individual.  In  this  respect  Durkheim  regards 
religion  from  quite  another  point  of  view  than  that  presented 
by  William  James  in  his  Varieties.  Durkheim,  when  he  de- 
fines religion,  finds  that  it  is  the  beliefs  and  practices  which 
unite  into  one  single  moral  community  all  those  who  accept 
them  or  live  in  accordance  with  their  requirements. 

Durkheim  accepts  this  conception  of  the  nature  of  religion 
because  he  finds  that  it  is  a  developmental  phase  of  man's  evolu- 
tion as  an  industrial,  moral,  and  intellectual  being.  The  life 
of  mankind  grows  about  a  great  tradition  or  a  series  of  tradi- 
tions, results  of  human  experience,  passed  on  from  one  genera- 
tion to  another,  and  received  by  all  growing  minds  as  culture, 
intellectual  training,  and  moral  inculcation.  We  enter  into 
the  life  of  the  community  in  childhood,  find  it  giving  us  the- 
ories of  life  which  have  been  elaborating  through  many  cen- 
turies, and  initiating  us  into  the  communal  interpretation  of 

[366] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION   OP  RELIGION 

the  world  into  which  we  have  arrived.  We  have  not  to  think 
our  way  into  an  explanation  of  life,  its  meanings  and  its  duties, 
but  find  these  already  prepared  for  us  by  those  who  have  pre- 
ceded us  on  the  life  march.  We  may  in  time  come  to  doubt 
these  interpretations;  but  at  first  we  accept  them  implicitly 
and  are  not  able  to  question  their  truthfulness.  "We  speak  a 
language, ' '  Durkheim  says  in  his  seventh  chapter,  which  is  de- 
voted to  the  origin  of  beliefs,  "that  we  did  not  make;  we  use 
instruments  that  we  did  not  invent;  we  invoke  rights  that  we 
did  not  found ;  a  treasury  of  knowledge  is  transmitted  to  each 
generation  that  it  did  not  gather  itself.  It  is  to  society  that 
we  owe  these  varied  benefits  of  civilization,  and  if  we  do  not 
ordinarily  see  the  source  from  which  we  get  them,  we  at  least 
know  that  they  are  not  our  own  work." 

It  is  Durkheim 's  conclusion  that  because  we  feel  our  de- 
pendence on  these  products  of  the  creative  energies  of  man- 
kind, and  do  not  comprehend  definitely  how  they  came  to  us, 
we  attribute  them  to  spirits  or  gods,  and  give  them  a  religious 
significance.  These  precious  things,  that  have  come  to  us. out 
of  the  past,  that  have  tender  sanctities  associated  with  them, 
we  regard  as  of  a  divine  origin,  give  them  symbolical  mean- 
ings, and  say  that  they  came  to  us  from  God.  Durkheim  is  of 
the  opinion,  however,  that  "the  sacred  principle  is  nothing 
more  nor  less  than  society  transfigured  and  personified."  Ac- 
cordingly, we  have  here  a  means  of  interpreting  sacred  things 
and  acts  in  lay  and  social  terms.  The  process  by  which  the  so- 
cial becomes  the  divine  Durkheim  interprets  in  these  words: 
"The  individual  gets  from  society  the  best  part  of  himself,  all 
that  gives  him  a  distinct  character  and  a  special  place  among 
other  beings,  his  intellectual  and  moral  culture.  If  we  should 
withdraw  from  men  their  language,  sciences,  arts  and  moral 
beliefs,  they  would  drop  to  the  rank  of  animals.  So  the  char- 

[367] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF  RELIGION 

acteristic  attributes  of  human  nature  come  from  society.  But, 
on  the  other  hand,  society  exists  and  lives  only  in  and  through 
individuals.  If  the  idea  of  society  were  extinguished  in  indi- 
vidual minds  and  the  beliefs,  traditions  and  aspirations  of  the 
group  were  no  longer  felt  and  shared  by  the  individuals,  so- 
ciety would  die.  We  can  say  of  it  what  we  said  of  the  divinity : 
it  is  only  in  so  far  as  it  has  a  place  in  human  consciousness, 
and  this  place  is  whatever  one  we  may  give  it.  We  now  see 
the  real  reason  why  the  gods  cannot  do  without  their  worship- 
pers any  more  than  these  can  do  without  their  gods;  it  is  be- 
cause society,  of  which  the  gods  are  only  a  symbolical  expres- 
sion, cannot  do  without  individuals  any  more  than  these  can 
do  without  society." 

Durkheim  arrives  at  the  conclusion  that  society  has 
stamped  itself  indelibly  upon  every  phase  of  individual  life, 
as  well  as  on  all  phases  of  religion,  culture,  and  civilization. 
It  is  not  the  individual  mind  as  individual,  as  possessed  of  ini- 
tiative and  genius,  which  has  given  origin  to  these  great  con- 
structive results  of  the  experiences  derived  from  many  a  gener- 
ation succeeding  one  another,  and  absorbing  these  products 
of  individual  activity.  Rather  is  it  the  corporate,  the  organic, 
more  properly  the  genetic,  advance  of  mankind,  which  has 
made  humanity  what  it  has  become.  This  means  that  life  has 
grown  out  of  life,  that  one  phase  of  society  has  evolved  out  of 
another,  and  that  religion  is  something  ever  proceeding,  as 
much  a  revelation  now  as  it  ever  has  been  or  ever  can  become. 
Religion,  therefore,  is  a  process  of  growth,  and  when  it  is  not 
that  it  is  a  cumberer  of  the  earth.  Truly,  it  is  something  that 
is  evolving,  that  leaves  behind  the  old,  that  is  forever  slough- 
ing off  the  outgrown.  It  does  not  so  much  give  us  new  truth 
as  fresh  life.  What  it  may  accomplish,  if  it  is  vital  and  dy- 
namic, is  to  give  society  new  incentives,  which  shall  bring  it 

[368] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

into  vital  and  forceful  activity  towards  making  a  better  human- 
ity. What  does  not  make  for  the  glory  of  man,  what  does  not 
lift  him  and  set  him  more  strongly  on  his  feet,  is  not  essential 
to  a  genuine  religion. 

* '  The  real  function  of  religion, ' '  is  the  statement  of  Durk- 
heim,  "is  not  to  make  us  think,  to  enrich  our  knowledge,  nor 
to  add  to  the  conceptions  which  we  owe  to  science  others  of 
another  origin  and  another  character,  but  rather,  it  is  to  make 
us  act,  to  aid  us  to  live.  The  believer  who  has  communicated 
with  his  god  is  not  merely  a  man  who  sees  new  truths  of  which 
the  unbeliever  is  ignorant;  but  he  is  a  man  who  is  stronger. 
He  feels  within  him  more  force,  either  to  endure  the  trials  of 
existence,  or  to  conquer  them." 

Durkheim  emphasizes,  as  perhaps  no  one  else  has  ever 
done,  the  constructive  power  of  society,  and  that  out  of  it 
grows  every  phase  of  knowledge,  art,  science,  and  religion. 
He  refers  all  these  back  to  it,  and  finds  in  it  their  interpreta- 
tion. He  may  seem  to  give  too  little  credit  to  the  individual 
genius;  but  when  one  follows  through  his  pages  that  worthy 
is  not  missed,  and  it  is  difficult  to  find  a  place  for  him,  and  es- 
pecially so  in  the  realms  of  religion. 

Not  less  than  in  the  case  of  Younghusband  and  Wells, 
does  Durkheim  regard  God  as  a  projection  of  the  collective 
consciousness  of  mankind.  No  one  can  more  strongly  empha- 
size the  importance  of  religion  than  he  has  done,  and  he  never 
ignores  the  meaning  and  the  worth  of  God  as  a  constructive 
force  in  nature  and  humanity.  He  makes  no  appeal  to  the 
supernatural,  the  miraculous,  the  occult  or  the  mystical ;  though 
he  makes  no  attack  upon  any  of  them.  Rather,  he  has  no  use 
for  them  as  a  man  of  scientific  habits,  who  is  inquiring  dili- 
gently into  facts,  and  not  into  surmises  and  theories.  He 
respects  tradition,  he  expounds  its  true  meaning ;  but  he  never 

[369] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION  ,OF  RELIGION 


bows  to  it  as  to  something  infallibjfe.  He  knows  the  great 
power  of  tradition,  but  he  also  kno^s  that  new  traditions  are 
being  created,  which  will  in  time  supersede  the  old  ones  and 
make  them  of  no  account. 


An  Italian  biologist,  Eugenio  Rignano,  has  published  sev- 
eral important  scientific  works,  and  is  the  editor  of  Scientia, 
the  international  review  of  scientific  synthesis.  In  his  Essays 
in  Scientific  Synthesis,  he  has  devoted  one  of  them  to  religious 
phenomena,  in  which  he  contends  as  strongly  as  does  Durk- 
heim,  that  in  its  beginnings  religion  is  of  a  social  origin;  but 
that  in  its  more  recent  developments  it  has  lost  that  character, 
and  has  come  to  be  superseded  by  economics  and  other  prac- 
tical interests. 

Psychologically,  according  to  Rignano,  primitive  man 
makes  for  himself,  at  the  base  of  all  his  religious  conceptions, 
an  irresistible  association  of  ideas;  and  the  hasty  generaliza- 
tion resulting  from  it,  at  every  unexpected  happening  in  the 
physical  world  in  which  he  lives,  leads  to  the  opinion  that 
events  are  caused  by  one  or  more  wills  similar  to  his  own.  Man 
makes  use  of  propitiatory  acts  in  mitigating  the  anger  of  his 
fellowman,  and  he  learns  to  apply  the  same  method  in  deal- 
ing with  the  wills  he  finds  acting  in  nature.  In  time  the  com- 
munity accepts  the  method  of  controlling  the  powers  acting 
against  or  for  man,  and  a  series  of  rites  develops  to  this  end. 
In  ancient  society,  Rignano  assures  us,  religion  constitutes 
alone  the  whole  psychic  scaffolding  so  indispensable  to  the 
solidarity  of  the  social  edifice;  and  it  penetrates,  regulates, 
directs,  and  stimulates  the  energies  of  each  member  of  the  com- 
munity at  each  moment  of  its  existence. 

[370] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

"Thus  it  is  that  religion, "  we  are  told  by  Rignano,  "raises 
and  sustains  all  the  social  institutions,  which  serve  as  dikes, 
either  to  contain  and  canalize  the  course  of  certain  series  of  so- 
cial facts  or  relations,  or  to  oppose  an  irresistible  barrier  to 
anti-social  acts  or  relations.  Every  social  thing,  i.  e.,  that  it 
is  of  collective  interest  to  fix  and  to  preserve,  becomes  at  the 
same  time  a  sacred  thing,  which  may  not  be  touched  without 
sin.  Civil  obligation  and  religious  duty  are  one  and  the  same 
thing. " 

It  is  shown  that  law  is  of  a  purely  religious  origin ;  and  of 
the  same  source  are  those  regulations  which  class  the  members 
of  society  according  to  age,  sex,  celibacy  or  marriage,  profes- 
sion, caste,  and  so  on.  In  fact,  every  activity  of  a  social  inter- 
est was  controlled  by  religion.  Especially  was  this  true  of 
all  the  activities  which  depended  absolutely  on  their  simulta- 
neous and  co-ordinated  character.  There  was  no  individual 
or  collective  economic  fact  which  was  not  invested  with  a 
sacred  nature,  and  in  that  manner  imposed  on  society  for  gen- 
eral observance.  The  calendar,  moral  requirements,  ceremonies 
connected  with  agriculture,  the  psychic  habits  growing  out  of 
primitive  gregariousness,  war  in  all  its  phases,  the  derivation 
and  sanctions  of  government,  were  all  of  a  religious  origin,  and 
the  means  of  expressing  and  enforcing  its  rites  and  beliefs. 
Rignano  mentions  war  especially  as  approved  by  religion,  and 
as  one  of  the  most  important  means  of  its  extension  and  em- 
phasis. 

In  the  modern  world,  however,  this  intimacy  of  religion 
and  social  development  has  lost  its  meaning.  With  the  prog- 
ress of  mankind  "we  see  all  these  causes,  which  have  contrib- 
uted in  the  past  to  the  creation  and  development  of  the  reli- 
gious organ,  growing  now  weaker  and  weaker,  especially  in 
the  civil  societies  of  our  own  time,  and  tending  one  after  an- 

[371] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  KELIGION 

other  to  disappear,  because  there  have  been  gradually  formed 
distinct  organs  for  these  functions,  always  useful,  which  re- 
ligion alone  hitherto  exercised,  or  because  the  need  of  others 
for  these  functions  of  religion  is  no  longer  felt." 

Social  institutions  and  law  now  have  niuregard  for  religion, 
and  develop  quite  independently  of  it.  jThe  divine  sanctions 
which  condemned  anti-social  acts  in  the  past  have  now  no 
meaning,  and  have  been  replaced  by  legal  processes  and  secular 
punishments.  /  The  religious  bond  has  been  replaced  by  the 
economic,  ami  the  sentiment  of  social  solidarity  succeeds  to  the 
influences  formerly  exercised  by  religion.  Owing  to  the  devel- 
opment of  the  new  industrial  and  economic  forces  the  old  re- 
ligious sanctions  have  ceased  to  function,  and  religion  is  con- 
demned to  a  slow  atrophy  of  its  control  of  human  affairs.  Dogma 
is  being  shaken  off  and  faith  is  weakening'  on  every  hand.  "The 
prodigious  development  of  science  in  every  branch  of  knowledge, 
the  diffusion  of  technical  culture  and  of  instruction  in  general, 
the  popularization  of  the  conception  of  natural  laws,  immutable, 
and  regulating  the  various  transformations  of  matter,  all  these 
facts,  which  give  to  the  mind  a  scientific  as  opposed  to  a  religious 
outlook,  ultimately  exercise  a  destructive  influence  on  religious 
beliefs,  which  becomes  more  and  more  efficacious,  in  proportion 
as  the  organ  destined  to  support  and  strengthen  those  beliefs 
has  lost  from  day  to  day  its  functional  energy." 

Not  only  is  the  religious  organ  in  a  continuous  process  of 
atrophy,  but  the  economic  and  scientific  developments  which  are 
replacing  it  are  growing  stronger  with  every  year.  The  result 
is  a  direct  attack  upon  religion  and  its  several  institutions  and 
beliefs.  As  the  workers  of  the  world  grow  stronger  and  better 
organized  they  find  religion  less  important  to  them;  and  some 
day  they  will  sweep  away  those  social  and  religious  guarantees 
which  underlie  much  of  what  has  been  regarded  as  of  primary 

[372] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

importance.  There  is  taking  place,  also,  a  moral  evolution  away 
from  religion;  and  conduct,  individual  and  social,  no  longer  de- 
pends on  the  old  sacred  sanctions.  Ajjollective  conscience  is 
being  developed,  which  is  having  a  marvellous  growth,  and  fm»«^ 
makes  religion  no  longer  essential.  It  is  this  power  which  is 
fighting  human  evils,  and  is  destined  in  time  to  conquer  them. 
" Built  up  by  every  means  of  communication  and  transmission ^TL^ 
of  thought,  by  the  most  varied  methods  of  the  propagation  of 
ideas,  by  all  of  what  we  call  the  organs  of  public  opinion,  by 
every  kind  of  meeting  and  association  adapted  to  elicit  and  to 
express  the  resultant  of  many  individual  wills,  by  all  the  repre- 
sentative systems  in  every  department  of  social  activity,  this 
complex  apparatus  of  the  collective  conscience  now  allows,  with 
greater  and  greater  facility  and  perfection,  and  in  an  ever-in- 
creasing number  of  cases,  of  concerted  agreement  and  action  be- 
tween the  components  of  each  social  group  or  sub-group,  and 
thus  between  all  the  members  of  society  in  general.  It  exercises 
in  consequence  an  ever-increasing  and  decisive  influence  in  all 
domains  of  social  activity,  and  also  in  the  domain  of  morality. " 
The  conclusion  of  Eignano  is  that  religion  is  slowly  dying, 
but  that  it  is  being  replaced  by  what  is  truer,  by  what  answers  x 
more  truly  to  modern  needs,  and  by  what  is  far  more  effective  as 
an  individual  and  social  support.  Guided  by  principles  of  purely 
rational  order,  society  is  progressing  with  tranquil  serenity  to- 
wards a  great  future.  As  religion  loses  more  and  more  of  its 
social  force,  as  a  guide  and  support  of  human  communities,  in 
its  regenerated  form  it  may  become  a  support  to  individuals, 
and  especially  to  those  of  a  mystical  tendency.  In  this  purely 
individual  form  it  may  keep  alight  within  its  heart  the  sacred 
torch  of  religion,  and  transmit  that  light  from  one  generation 
to  another  while  human  life  endures. 

[373] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  EELIGION 

5 

Another  Italian,  Benedetto  Croce,  is  of  the  opinion  that  re- 
ligion is  nothing  else  than  mythology,  and  that  it  is  being  super- 
seded by  philosophy.  Croce 's  philosophical  writings  have  re- 
cently attracted  much  attention,  for  he  is  the  author  of  a  series 
of  volumes  on  the  philosophy  of  spirit,  which  shows  that  he  has 
been  greatly  influenced  by  Hegel.  This  system  includes  Logic  as 
a  science  of  pure  concept,  Aesthetics  as  science  of  expression 
and  general  linguistics,  and  a  treatise  on  philosophy  as  a  practi- 
cal economic  and  ethic.  He  has  also  published  works  on  what  is 
living  and  what  is  dead  in  the  philosophy  of  Hegel,  and  one  on 
historical  materialism  and  Marxist  economy.  He  is  also  the 
editor  of  a  philosophical  review  called  La  Critica. 

In  his  chapter  on  mythology,  to  be  found  in  his  Logic, 
Croce  expresses  the  opinion  that  religion  is  identical  with  myth- 
ology, and  that  its  basis  is  no  more  substantial.  Whatever  is 
real  in  religion,  and  with  a  solid  foundation,  is  identical  with 
philosophy.  Therefore,  he  entirely  discards  religion  as  valueless, 
and  as  without  any  substantial  meaning  for  the  thought  of  to- 
day. He  classes  the  narrative  of  Adam  and  Eve,  who  eat  of  for- 
bidden fruit  and  are  driven  out  of  paradise,  with  the  stories  of 
Phoebus,  Daphne,  and  Prometheus,  as  of  the  same  nature.  The 
Hebrew  story  of  a  God  Creator  is  of  the  same  character  as  the 
Greek  myths  of  Uranus  and  Gaea,  the  birth  of  Chronos  and  the 
Titans.  To  be  classed  with  these  myths  are  those  of  paradise, 
with  its  immortal  life,  the  son  of  God  who  comes  into  the  human 
world,  and  the  apocalyptic  visions  of  a  regenerated  earth. 

According  to  Croce  mythology  results  from  giving  concepts 
a  personified  form,  and  it  is  the  fundamental  error  of  religion. 
In  so  far  as  the  revelation  on  which  religion  rests  is  not  of  the 
spirit  of  thought,  it  is  nothing  more  than  mythology,  with  its 

[374] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

logical  contradictions.  Such  religion  has  its  origin  and  its  es- 
sence in  myth,  it  is  necessary  that  it  should  be  rejected  for 
philosophy,  which  has  its  justification  and  its  credentials  in 
the  nature  of  thought.  Philosophy  is  the  only  true  religion, 
and  more  and  more  religion  takes  on  the  philosophical  form. 
If  it  does  not  make  this  transition  it  remains  as  error,  and 
can  be  nothing  else.  Croce  says  that  religion,  when  divorced 
from  philosophy,  degenerates  into  blind  fancy  and  empty 
concepts.  When  religion  would  save  itself  from  criticism  it  is 
obliged  to  have  resort  to  philosophy,  and  it  is  then  called  the- 
ology. "Theology  is  philosophism, ' '  to  use  the  translation  of 
Douglas  Ainslie,  "because  it  works  with  concepts  which  are 
empty  of  all  historical  and  empirical  content.  Myth  becomes 
dogma;  the  myth  of  the  expulsion  from  paradise  becomes  the 
dogma  of  original  sin;  the  myth  of  the  son  of  God  becomes  the 
dogma  of  the  incarnation  and  of  the  Trinity." 

In  his  chapter  on  the  consolations  of  philosophy,  Croce  as- 
sures us  that  religion  has  no  comforts  which  are  permanent  for 
the  thinking  person.  Philosophy  has  made  the  concepts  of  God 
and  immortality  more  exact,  and  it  has  liberated  them  from  the 
impurities  with  which  they  did  abound.  Those  who  have  really 
thought  about  them  have  never  found  true  consolation  in  their 
absurdities.  No  God  outside  the  world,  a  despot  ruling  the  uni- 
verse, can  lead  to  anything  else  than  fear ;  and  he  may  be  often 
the  cause  of  maledictions.  The  belief  in  immortality  gains 
nothing  from  its  theological  interpretations ;  and  these  are  more 
and  more  called  in  question  by  those  who  think. 

Croce  recognizes  four  great  fundamental  forms  of  knowl- 
edge —  logic,  esthetics,  economics,  and  ethics.  There  is  no  fifth, 
and  therefore  religion  is  in  no  sense  to  be  regarded  as  affording 
knowledge  in  any  form  apart  from  these  primary  forms  of  phi- 
losophy. Religion  sometimes  partakes  of  the  nature  of  esthetics, 

[375] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  KELIGION 

sometimes  of  logic,  and  is,  consequently  a  mere  hybrid.  As  myth- 
ology it  is  now  art  and  now  philosophy.  However,  though  all 
that  is  true  in  it  is  of  the  nature  of  philosophy,  yet  as  such  it 
is  never  of  the  real  nature  of  a  philosophical  system.  Rather 
is  religion  of  the  nature  of  art,  a  work  of  the  imagination  and  of 
intuition,  but  without  verifying  means  for  correcting  its  false 
perspectives  and  visions. 

In  that  volume  of  his  philosophy  devoted  to  esthetics,  Croce 
says,  in  the  translation  of  Wildon  Carr,  presented  in  his  inter- 
pretation of  that  philosopher:  " Where  there  is  no  knowledge 
there  is  no  religion,  and  religion  is  not  a  form  of  knowledge 
distinguished  from  other  forms,  for  it  is  sometimes  an  expression 
of  practical  aspirations  and  ideals,  sometimes  a  historical  nar- 
rative, sometimes  a  conceptual  science,  dogmatic  theology.  With 
equal  cogency,  then,  we  may  maintain  both  that  religion  is 
destroyed  by  the  progress  of  human  knowledge  and  that  it  al- 
ways persists  in  that  progress.  To  primitive  peoples,  religion 
was  the  whole  patrimony  of  knowledge;  to  us  our  patrimony  of 
knowledge  is  our  religion.  Its  content  has  changed,  has  ameli- 
orated, has  become  refined;  in  the  future  it  will  contrive  to 
change,  to  be  ameliorated,  to  become  refined;  but  its  form  does 
not  change,  that  is  always  the  same.  How  those  who  would  pre- 
serve religion  as  a  theoretical  human  activity  side  by  side  with 
art  and  philosophy  would  use  it,  I  do  not  know.  It  is  not  pos- 
sible to  preserve  an  imperfect  and  inferior  knowledge  side  by 
side  with  the  knowledge  which  goes  beyond  it  and  invalidates  it. ' ' 


An  English  interpreter  of  religion  who  has  been  to  a  con- 
siderable extent  influenced  by  Durkheim,  as  also  by  Bergson, 
is  Jane  Ellen  Harrison.  Her  Prolegomena  to  the  Study  of 

[376] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  EELIGION 

Greek  Religion,  and  her  Themis :  A  Study  of  the  Social  Origins 
of  Greek  Religion,  are  works  of  the  first  importance,  being 
standard  authorities  on  the  subjects  with  which  they  deal.  A 
more  recent,  1915,  small  volume  of  essays  entitled  Alpha  and 
Omega,  presents  some  most  interesting  interpretations  of  her 
religious  experiences.  Brought  up  in  a  strict  low-church  Ang- 
lican family,  when  she  went  to  London  and  became  a  lecturer 
at  Newnham,  her  early  teachings  quite  dropped  away  from  her, 
and  she  became  indifferent  to  church  forms  and  beliefs.  Gradu- 
ally she  found  herself  greatly  interested  in  Greek  art  and 
philosophy ;  but  at  last  it  dawned  upon  her  that  what  she  really 
cared  for  in  her  absorbing  Greek  studies  was  religion,  every 
phase  of  which  drew  and  held  her  with  its  naturalness  and  its 
charm. 

In  the  essay  which  gives  title  to  her  book,  she  says  that  ' '  it 
happened  rather  oddly  that  what  I  really  was  interested  in  was, 
not  Greek  art,  but  Greek  religion,  and  even  Greek  literature 
held  me  largely  for  its  profoundly  religious  content.  So,  gradu- 
ally I  worked  and  lectured  more  and  more  on  Greek  mythology, 
and  less  and  less  on  Greek  art ;  and  then,  again,  I  found  it  was 
not  mythology  really  interested  and  drew  me,  save  for  its  poetry, 
but  ritual  and  religion.  I  was  always  hankering  after  that  side 
of  things,  wanting  to  understand  it,  excited  about  it.  ...  I  was 
studying  a  vital  and  tremendous  impulse  : —  a  thing  fraught  in- 
deed with  endless  peril,  but  great  and  glorious,  inspiring,  worth 
all  a  lifetime's  devotion. 

"And  then  bit  by  bit  I  came  to  see  that  the  thing  I  loved, 
that  beckoned  to  me  and  drew  me  irresistibly,  was  religion ;  the 
thing  that  hampered  and  thwarted  and  even  disgusted  me  was 
theology.  Theology  is  the  letter  that  killeth,  religion  the  spirit 
that  maketh  alive,  and  if  the  good  ship  Religion  is  to  live  in  to- 

[377] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  KELIGION 

day's  turbulent  waters,  we  must  shrink,  we  must  throw  over- 
board the  Jonah  of  theology.'7 

In  these  essays  Harrison  makes  it  quite  plain  that  she  is 
not  only  a  heretic  and  an  agnostic,  but  also  an  atheist.  In  this 
same  essay  she  says  in  plainest  terms:  "To  be  an  Atheist,  to 
renounce  eikonic  theology,  is  to  me  personally  almost  an  essen- 
tial of  religious  life.  I  say  this  in  no  spirit  of  paradox,  but  as 
a  matter  of  deep  conviction.  The  god  of  theology  is  simply  an 
intellectual  attempt  to  define  the  indefinable;  it  is  not  a  thing 
lived,  experienced ;  it  almost  must  be  a  spiritual  stumbling-block 
today.  ...  It  is  not  only  that  the  particular  forms  of  theology 
are  dead,  but  that  the  idea  of  theology  —  i.  e.,  a  science  of  the 
unknowable  —  is,  if  not  dead,  at  least,  I  venture  to  think,  dying. 
God  and  reason  are  contradictory  terms/7  Then  she  avows  her- 
self a  deeply  religious  Atheist,  who  has  been  largely  influenced 
by  Bergson,  whose  philosophy  she  regards  as  having  given  a 
shattering  blow  to  theology,  "because  all  theology  is  but  a  thinly- 
veiled  rationalism,  a  net  of  illusive  clarity  cast  over  life  and  its 
realities.77 

In  being  a  heretic  Harrison  feels  that  she  is  assuming  an 
almost  human  obligation,  because  the  gist  of  it  is  free  personal 
choice  in  act,  and  especially  in  thought,  and  the  rejection  of 
traditional  faiths  and  customs.  In  tribal  society  heresy  was  im- 
possible, and  even  in  the  time  of  our  grandfathers  it  made  one 
something  of  a  social  outcast.  Now  it  has  become  an  intellectual 
as  well  as  a  social  duty.  In  taking  this  view  of  heresy,  how- 
ever, we  must  recognize  that  orthodoxy  results  from  the  action 
of  herd  instincts,  hence  it  becomes  an  obligation  of  progressive 
persons  to  bring  the  herd  instincts  to  the  side  of  what  is  modern 
and  rational.  Heresy,  being  the  child  of  science,  while  it  holds 
fast  to  its  mother's  hand,  may  run  with  swiftness  and  certainty. 

In  her  definition  of  religion  Harrison  follows  Durkheim, 

[378] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

her  statement  taking  this  form:  " Religion  is  not  the  aspiration 
of  the  individual  soul  after  a  god,  or  after  the  unknown,  or  after 
the  infinite;  rather  it  is  the  expression,  utterance,  projection  of 
the  emotion,  the  desire  of  a  group.  Now,  historically  this  is 
true  of  the  genesis  of  religion.  That  I  hold  is  established.  Re- 
ligion, in  its  rise,  is  indistinguishable  from  social  custom,  em- 
bodying social  emotion."  In  the  course  of  time  social  combina- 
tions have  enlarged,  the  individual  has  come  into  a  right  to  act 
and  think  for  himself;  but  religion  largely  remains  a  form  of 
the  collective  attitude  of  great  bodies  of  men  and  women.  Free- 
dom of  thought  has  been  secured,  but  essentially  religion  fo- 
cuses the  social  consciousness  and  aspirations.  She  accepts  the 
conclusion  that  the  only  real  forces  to-day  are  the  group  forces, 
and  these  give  to  religion  its  meaning  and  its  power. 

The  conclusion  reached  by  Harrison  is  that  man  was  never 
so  little  theological  as  he  is  to-day,  but  that  he  was  never  so  pro- 
foundly religious,  so  passionately  social,  the  two  words  having 
essentially  the  same  meaning  for  her.  If  we  would  keep  religion, 
we  are  told,  in  the  essay  on  Alpha  and  Omega,  we  must  allow 
theology  to  go.  It  is  a  chief  hindrance  to  the  progress  of  re- 
ligion, and  its  retention  means  that  the  two  will  die  together. 
The  basis  of  theology  is  the  idea  of  revelation,  a  body  of  super- 
natural truth.  In  discarding  theology,  it  is  evident  that  Harri- 
son would  permit  revelation  to  go  with  it,  as  no  longer  having 
a  real  meaning  for  the  thinking  of  to-day.  ' '  It  is  sufficient, ' '  she 
says  in  the  essay  on  Darwinism  and  Religion,  "to  recall  that 
'revelation'  included  such  items  as  the  creation  of  the  world  out 
of  nothing  in  six  days;  the  making  of  Eve  from  one  of  Adam's 
ribs ;  the  temptation  of  a  talking  snake ;  the  confusion  of  tongues 
at  the  tower  of  Babel ;  the  doctrine  of  original  sin ;  a  scheme  of 
salvation  which  demanded  the  virgin  birth,  vicarious  atonement, 
and  the  resurrection  of  the  material  body.  The  scheme  was  un- 

[379] 


,      THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

folded  in  an  infallible  book,  or,  for  one  section  of  Christians, 
guarded  by  the  tradition  of  an  infallible  church,  and  on  the  ac- 
ceptance or  refusal  of  this  scheme  depended  an  eternity  of  weal 
or  woe.  There  is  not  one  of  these  doctrines  that  has  not  now 
been  recast,  softened  down,  mysticized  into  something  more  con- 
formable with  modern  thinking.  It  is  hard  for  the  present  gen- 
eration, unless  their  breeding  has  been  singularly  archaic,  to 
realize  that  these  amazing  doctrines  were  literally  held  and  be- 
lieved to  constitute  the  very  essence  of  religion;  to  doubt  them 
was  a  moral  delinquency." 

The  whole  tenor  of  Harrison's  interpretation  of  religion 
and  theology  in  this  book  would  lead  to  the  conclusion  that  these 
doctrines  are  of  a  mythological  nature,  as  much  so  as  the  Greek 
conception  of  Olympus,  its  gods  and  its  beliefs.  If  Christianity 
has  a  meaning  for  the  life  of  to-day  it  does  not  lie  in  the  direc- 
tion of  these  mythological  conceptions,  but  in  quite  another  di- 
rection. We  have  discarded  the  myths  of  the  Greeks,  Baby- 
lonians, and  Hindus ;  and  it  is  quite  time  that  we  rejected  those 
of  the  Hebrews  and  Christians.  Religion  gains  nothing  what- 
ever by  retaining  beliefs  thinking  men  and  women,  as  these 
pages  have  shown,  are  coming  more  and  more  to  reject.  We  are 
to  recognize  the  fact  that  theology  is  based  on  myth  and  meta- 
physics (myth  stated  in  abstract  form)  ;  and  that  it  is  quite 
time  we  turned  away  from  both  with  scorn.  What  theology 
means  to  Harrison  she  has  well  stated  in  the  essay  on  Darwin- 
ism and  Religion,  in  saying  that  "man  has  provided  himself 
through  the  processes  of  his  thinking  with  a  supersensuous 
world,  the  world  of  sense-delusion,  of  smoke  and  cloud,  of  dream 
and  phantom,  of  imagination,  of  name  and  number  and  image." 

In  the  same  essay  we  read  that  man  worships,  feels  and  acts ; 
and,  as  the  result  of  his  feeling  and  action,  projected  into  his 
confused  thinking,  he  develops  a  god.  Man  projects  his  own 

[380] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

thought  into  universe  and  calls  it  god,  bows  before  it  and  wor-   v 
ships.     Gods  are  a  part  of  theology,  and  both  are  necessarily 
temporary,  constantly  giving  place  to  those  which  are  more  mod- 
ern and  rational.     "We  know  now  that,  all  over  the  world,  a    j 
people  of  peasants  tilling  the  fields,  dependent  much  on  weather    / 
and  climate  and  nature  generally,  will  have  as  their  gods  vague  I 
daemones.    But  a  people  vigorous,  self-reliant,  practically  effi- 
cient, a  people  of  conquerers,  immigrants,  colonial,  whether  Hel-  / 
len  or  Teuton,  always  make  their  gods  in  human  shape.     They  J 
believe  in  themselves,  and  they  project  their  own  images.    God 
is  for  them  what  they  trust  and  believe  in  —  that  is,  their  own 
right  arm.     Religion  is  transfigured  morality."    Again:     "Mo- 
rality is  social,  due  to  the  reaction  of  man  on  man ;  it  is  human. 
But  religion  is  our  reaction  to  the  whole,  the  unbounded  whole. ' ' 


An  American  psychologist,  who  to  a  considerable  extent 
accepts  the  same  positions  in  regard  to  the  nature  of  religion  as 
those  presented  by  Emile  Durkheim,  is  James  Mark  Baldwin. 
He  has  published  numerous  psychological  works,  and  is  the  editor 
of  the  Dictionary  of  Philosophy  and  Psychology.  In  his  little 
book  on  Darwin  and  the  Humanities,  Baldwin  says  that  we  can- 
not rest  content  with  the  individualistic  theory  of  religion,  the 
view  that  it  springs  up  in  the  individual  in  the  form  of  rational 
insight  or  private  intuition;  but,  as  the  result  of  comparative 
and  anthropological  studies,  we  must  regard  it  as  of  social  origin 
—  always  an  institution  of  gradual  evolution,  embodying  the 
results  of  social  intercourse.  Always  and  everywhere  it  is  a  so-  """} 
cial  phenomenon,  and  grows  out  of  the  life  of  the  social  group. 
When  the  group  is  primitive  in  its  character,  such  will  be  thet 
religion,  that  is,  communal  and  tribal.  As  the  group  advances  \ 


[381] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

in  size,  in  affiliation  of  its  par.ts,  and  in  co-ordination  of  its 
forces,  the  religion  will  become  more  integral  and  nobler. 

Baldwin  finds  that  God  is  an  expression  of  the  ideals  of  the 
group  and  of  the  individual,  for  he  says  that  the  ideal  self  is 
God.  As  he  indicates  by  his  interpretation  of  the  nature  of  the 
self,  which  is  a  growth  from  social  contacts,  he  must  regard 
the  self  embodied  in  the  nature  of  God  as  essentially  social  in  its 
origin  and  nature.  "God  is  a  construction  of  the  imagination," 
he  observes,  "beyond  the  concrete  cases  of  selfhood  that  we 
know ;  it  is  an  ideal  set  up  and  considered  as  actual.  Considered 
as  a  factor  in  experience,  God  is  the  supposed  or  imagined  Self, 
which  is  the  outcome  of  the  self-movement  toward  perfection  - 
the  control  meaning  anticipated  by  all  the  partial  adjustments 
which  finite  selves  effect  to  one  another.  As  the  ethical  demand 
or  postulate  is  one  of  a  completed  social  order,  and  its  ideal  is 
one  of  harmonious  practical  relationships  on  a  social  community ; 
so  the  religious  demand  or  postulate  is  that  of  a  perfect  self,  a 
fully  realized  or  complete  person,  in  whom  the  opposition  be- 
tween private  and  public  interests  would  be  completely  over- 


come. ' ' 


Baldwin  adds  that  the  deity  shows  the  growth  of  the  normal 
social  relations,  and  reflects  their  character,  because  he  is  the 
projected  personal  ideal  of  the  group.  The  individuals  of  the 
tribe  think  of  the  deity  as  apart  from  themselves  because  he  is 
personal,  yet  he  is  the  controlling  spirit  of  their  collectivity, 
the  voice,  the  oracle  of  the  group.  In  a  true  sense  the  deity  of 
the  tribe  is  the  tribal  spirit,  and  he  is  thought  of  in  terms  of  the 
tribal  self.  This  holds  good  through  all  advancing  stages  of 
social  evolution,  though,  as  this  advances,  the  individual  is  less 
and  less  subject  to  the  arbitrary  control  of  the  collectivity.  Ac- 
cordingly, the  deity  becomes  of  a  larger  and  more  humane  type, 
and  represents  a  finer  and  more  ethical  ideal. 

[382] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

Baldwin  is  the  author  of  four  volumes  devoted  to  a  system 
of  genetic  logic,  the  fourth  of  which  he  calls  a  Genetic  Theory 
of  Reality.  The  second  part  of  this  work  is  largely  devoted  to 
the  problems  of  social  growth  in  connection  with  the  evolution 
of  religion.  Baldwin  regards  God  as  one  of  the  personages  in 
the  social  relation,  and  of  such  a  nature  as  this  relation  would 
suggest.  He  is  not  an  arbitrary,  autocratic  being  in  some  sphere 
away  from  the  interests  of  human  beings ;  but  is  in  actual  and 
intimate  connection  with  their  interests.  He  probably  does  not, 
as  Durkheim  does,  regard  God  as  humanity  personified  and  ideal- 
ized to  represent  the  highest  standard  to  which  it  can  attain; 
but  he  evidently  is  quite  unwilling  to  set  God  in  any  place""or 
time  apart  from  the  human  fellowship  in  all  its  meanings.  God 
is  a  symbol,  and  while  both  actual  and  ideal,  is  never  to  be  dis- 
sociated from  human  interests. 

"Religion  of  humanity, "  Baldwin  says,  "to  be  a  religion, 
must  mean  religion  of  ideal  humanity;  but  this  is  what  religion 
of  divinity  also  means.  For  divinity  is  humanity  idealized  in 
both  its  aspects,  individual  and  social."  Religion  being  always 
a  social  ideal,  it  is  not  possible  that  the  deity  should  escape  from 
that  character  or  become  something  outside  humanity  and  above 
it.  All  ideals  being  products  of  the  imagination,  built  upon 
knowledge,  but  going  beyond  it,  the  ideal  person,  God,  must  also 
be  a  construction  of  the  imagination,  and  hence  receive  his 
nature  and  his  character.  l '  God  is  the  final  and  comprehensive 
value  of  the  life  of  feeling  and  will,"  is  another  statement  of 
Baldwin;  "and  as  reality,  this  postulate  gives  concreteness  to 
the  ideal  contained  in  the  whole  series  of  social  and  moral 
values."  If  the  meaning  of  these  statements  is  fully  appre- 
hended, Baldwin  is  in  sympathy  with  Durkheim  in  assuming 
that  God  in  all  his  phases  of  development,  from  the  lowest 
to  the  highest,  is  a  reflection  of  the  social  consciousness  of  one 

[383] 


THE   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

or  another  human  society,  the  innermost  expression  of  itself  as 
a  social  body,  a  fellowship  of  kindred  spirits.  So  understood 
God  becomes  the  real  meaning  of  religion,  in  becoming  the  ideal 
of  that  type  of  society  the  group  aspires  to  become,  and  is  organ- 
izing its  forces  to  realize.  This  means  that  the  deity  and  the 
religion  of  a  people  cannot  go  far  beyond  the  actual  life  lived 
by  its  membership  from  day  to  day. 

8 

Roy  Wood  Sellars,  a  professor  of  philosophy  in  an  Amer- 
ican university,  has  published  one  of  the  most  radical  of  books, 
which  he  entitles  The  Next  Step  in  Religion.  At  one  time  a 
student  in  a  theological  seminary,  he  has  evidently  studied 
widely  the  history  of  religion.  He  has  given  attention  to  a  wide 
range  of  other  subjects  for  he  has  published  books  on  Critical 
Realism,  The  Next  Step  in  Democracy,  The  Essentials  of  Logic, 
and  The  Essentials  of  Philosophy. 

The  chief  contention  of  Sellars  is,  that  religion  originates 
in  mythology,  his  second  chapter  being  devoted  to  that  subject. 
He  is  of  the  opinion  that  theology  must  be  superseded  by  science, 
which  must  reconstruct  for  us  the  universe,  morals,  and  our  so- 
cial institutions.  He  insists  that  the  conflict  between  science  and 
religion  has  by  no  means  ceased,  and  he  devotes  a  chapter  to 
that  subject.  He  claims  that  there  is  an  ever-increasing  number 
of  persons  who  believe  that  science  and  philosophy  must  take 
the  place  of  religion  or  give  it  a  thorough  reconstruction.  The 
battle  waged  in  the  time  of  Huxley  and  Tyndall  has  not  ceased 
to  rage,  but  has  shifted  its  points  of  contention.  He  says  that 
the  new  battle  is  being  waged  around  psychology  and  philosophy. 
Already  the  struggle  is  going  on  between  those  who  defend 
the  theory  of  an  extra-organic  soul  and  those  who  prove  by 

[  384  ] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

means  of  the  laboratories  of  biology  and  psychology,  that  the 
mind  and  body  are  inseparable.  This  contention  cannot  end 
until  the  old  conception  of  the  soul,  born  of  animism,  has  been 
brought  to  its  end. 

On  the  subject  of  the  old  dualism  of  body  and  mind  Sellars 
gives  forth  no  uncertain  affirmation  that  a  unity  of  conception 
is  demanded.  "I  am  inclined, "  he  says  in  his  chapter  on  the 
soul,  "to  prophesy  that  psychology  and  physiology  will  reach 
an  adjustment  of  their  principles  before  many  years  have  passed, 
and  that  consciousness  and  mind  will  take  their  places  along 
with  mass  and  energy  in  the  scientific  view  of  nature.  The 
old  dualism  of  soul  and  body  will  pass  away  and  give  place  to 
a  flexible  naturalism."  He  contends,  also,  that  human  person- 
ality is  a  function  of  the  sub-lunar  life,  of  the  physiological 
organism,  of  the  sky  and  soil,  and  of  the  restless  struggle  of  man 
with  nature.  In  his  opinion  when  the  mind-body  problem  is 
solved,  there  will  go  with  it  the  last  bulwark  of  the  old  super- 
naturalism.  "Man  will  be  forced  to  acknowledge  that  he  is  an 
earth-child  whose  drama  has  meaning  only  upon  her  bosom.  It 
is  my  firm  conviction,  he  affirms,  "that  the  clear  realization 
of  this  fact  will  startle  men  into  insights  and  demands  of  far- 
reaching  import. " 

In  his  criticism  of  theology  Sellars  is  definite  and  explicit. 
In  treating  of  the  evolution  of  Christianity  he  says  that  the 
theology  of  the  church  fathers,  councils  and  scholastics  has  in 
our  time  been  mellowed  into  a  universalistic  outlook  and  a 
strong  ethical  trend.  "I  challenge  anyone  to  develop  a  really 
tenable  system  of  theology,  a  system  which  is  self-consistent 
and  relevant  to  the  world  as  we  know  it.  I  am  certain  that  it 
cannot  be  done.  As  a  student  of  ethics,  my  growing  conviction 
has  for  some  time  been  that  these  traditional  controversies  and 
modes  of  approach  to  human  life  are  barren  and  irrelevant,  be- 

[385] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION   OF  RELIGION 

cause  they  cast  absolutely  no  light  upon  human  problems,  so- 
cial or  personal.  Modern  ethics  and  theology  have  ceased  to 
have  any  genuine  commerce.  The  one  is  in  touch  with  the 
sciences  of  biology,  sociology,  psychology  and  criminology;  the 
other,  by  its  very  nature,  can  gain  nothing  from  these  sciences." 

Contrasting  theology  with  science  our  author  maintains  that 
the  logic  of  revelation  is  the  logic  of  the  auto  da  fe;  but  that  the 
logic  of  science  is  tested  by  fact.  Theology  cannot  bring  about 
agreement  among  men;  but  this  is  the  very  purpose  and  spirit 
of  science.  The  romantic  spiritualism  on  which  theology  rests 
must  give  way  to  that  humanistic  naturalism  which  sees  clearly 
what  is  man's  true  place  in  the  world.  It  will  be  a  great  relief 
when  narrow  sectarianism,  cruel  bigotry,  and  the  obscurantism 
of  supernaturalism  are  purged  from  religion. 

Because  of  its  worship  of  the  Bible  Christianity  has  set  too 
high  a  value  on  beliefs  which  are  doomed  to  destruction.  The 
Bible  miracles  are  uncompromisingly  rejected  as  a  part  of  the 
mythical  and  supernatural  view  of  the  world  and  man's  rela- 
tions to  it.  They  lead  to  all  sorts  of  superstitious  beliefs,  and 
have  hindered  real  progress  toward  a  rational  conception  of 
nature  and  life.  The  miraculous  tales  of  the  New  Testament 
have  done  an  incalculable  amount  of  harm,  for  the  basis  on 
which  they  rest  is  weak.  They  do  not  fit  into  the  world  of  ex- 
perience as  we  know  it.  ''The  assertion  that  God  performs 
miracles,  like  the  similar  assertion  that  he  created  the  world,  is 
purely  hypothetical  and  un verifiable. " 

The  very  idea  of  a  personal  God,  who  works  miracles,  who 
answers  prayers,  who  directly  controls  the  events  of  nature, 
and  who  works  on  the  side  of  man  through  providential  agents 
is  in  need  of  justification.  In  dealing  with  the  stories  of  crea- 
tion, Sellars  says  that  "to  assign  to  a  hypothetical  agent  called 
God,  powers  sufficient  to  produce  what  experience  tells  us  exists 

[386] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  EELIGION 

explains  nothing.  The  primary  assumption,  of  course,  is  that 
there  must  have  been  a  creation ;  but  the  conception  of  evolution 
has  attacked  that  assumption  at  its  very  foundation."  We  are 
outgrowing  the  conception  of  personal  wills  acting  in  the  uni- 
verse, whether  interpreted  by  polytheism  or  monotheism.  The 
idea  of  a  youthful  and  developing  god  appeals  to  a  goodly 
number  of  persons  now;  and  in  many  directions  there  is  an 
advance  to  an  impersonal  conception  of  the  causing  agent  or 
agents  in  all  the  affairs  of  the  universe.  "We  are  coming  to  ex- 
plain by  means  of  natural  causes  all  the  happenings  in  nature 
and  humanity,  and  we  need  not,  therefore,  appeal  to  a  super- 
natural agent.  "All  of  man's  ideas  are  human  ideas,  and  so 
his  idea  of  his  God  and  the  very  personality  and  moral  outlook 
of  that  God  reflect  the  social  standards  which  are  in  force  around 
the  individual.  If  human  justice  is  cruel,  God's  justice  is  strict 
and  unyielding."  In  the  newer  conceptions  of  deity  God  be- 
comes a  part  of  the  universe  in  every  respect,  and  the  universe 
is  to  be  regarded  as  co-existent  with  deity. 

As  the  idea  of  God  has  grown  out  of  social  and  political 
conditions  at  the  several  stages  of  its  development,  so  has  the 
belief  in  immortality.  The  idea  of  another  life  has  given  a  false 
perspective  to  the  conditions  of  this  one.  Sellars  is  of  the  opinion 
that  this  belief  has  never  been  a  healthy  one  for  the  human  race. 
It  serves  as  a  narcotic,  and  it  falsifies  the  real  issues  of  human 
progress. 

Sellars  is  appreciative  of  Jesus  and  his  teachings,  but  he  is 
not  appreciative  of  the  theory  of  the  messianic  mission  of  this 
or  any  other  great  religious  person.  He  seems  to  have  some 
doubt  as  to  the  real  existence  of  the  New  Testament  personage, 
and  apparently  attributes  the  origin  of  theological  Christianity 
to  Paul.  The  Messiahs,  Buddhas  and  Mahdis  he  finds  to  be  prod- 
ucts of  the  race  imagination,  and  are  to  be  interpreted  from  that 

[387] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  EELIGION 

point  of  view.  Christianity  was  not  the  creation  of  a  single 
mind,  but  was  the  flowering  of  religious  mythology.  The  deifica- 
tion of  Jesus  is  certain  to  be  outgrown.  What  has  grown  up 
about  him  in  the  way  of  legend  and  myth  is  to  be  duplicated  by 
nearly  all  the  other  higher  religions.  "He  was  not  born  mirac- 
ulously, nor  was  he  preexistent  as  the  Word  or  Logos.  These 
terms  do  not  fit  into  an  outlook  dominated  by  science.  To  call 
him  the  Son  of  God  in  an  exclusive  sense  is  not  warranted  by 
the  facts,  nor  has  it  any  clear  meaning  for  the  present  age.  .  .  . 
Jesus  was  a  noble  and  tender-hearted  man  with  the  beliefs  of  his 
age.  To  speak  of  him  as  ideally  perfect  and  sinless  is  absurd 
just  because  these  terms  are  absolutes  where  relatives  alone 
have  meaning.  Like  most  theological  terms  they  cut  themselves 
loose  from  their  necessary  setting,  which,  in  this  case,  is  human 
nature  and  society." 

What  is  to  take  the  place  of  theology,  and  what  is  to  give 
sanction  to  the  developing  religion?  According  to  Sellars  it  is 
to  be  found  in  ethics  and  science.  Throughout  his  book  he 
emphasizes  the  importance  of  science  and  its  fundamental  princi- 
ples. Its  spirit  and  its  method  are  to  be  everywhere  applied  in 
the  future,  and  nothing  is  to  be  accepted  without  its  sanctions. 
This  is  why  we  have  here  a  fresh  emphasis  upon  the  ethical 
point  of  view.  Science  shows  us  that  the  moral  life  in  all  its 
phases  and  developments  is  of  human  origin,  and  that  it  needs 
no  sanctioning  of  theology  or  from  the  supernatural.  Christian- 
ity has  given  us  a  vicious  interpretation  of  morality,  and  one 
that  must  be  inevitably  outgrown.  "And  the  modern  thinker 
is  pretty  well  convinced  that  morality  is  a  purely  human  affair 
growing  out  of  the  instinctive  tendencies  which  man  has  in- 
herited in  the  course  of  evolution  as  these  find  themselves  in 
various  situations.  Moral  problems  are  meaningless  apart  from 
their  setting  on  this  earth." 

[388] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

In  spite  of  the  repeated  assertion  that  morality  apart  from 
belief  in  God  and  immortality  is  worthless,  a  steadily  growing 
number  of  persons  have  reached  the  conclusion  that  no  form 
of  miraculous  or  supernatural  sanction  whatever  is  essential  as 
the  basis  for  the  ethical  life.  Morality  originates  in  human 
relations,  and  its  sanctions  are  those  of  social  demands.  Indeed, 
so  well  is  this  now  understood,  that  for  the  scholar  and  the 
thinker  no  other  reason  for  being  moral  is  demanded.  In  this 
sanction  morality  finds  its  supreme  justification. 


This  review  of  some  of  the  phases  of  the  religious  life  of  our 
time,  and  of  the  opinions  of  a  few  of  the  leading  thinkers  of  the 
present  day,  will  help  to  make  it  clear  that  the  repeated  asser- 
tion is  emphatically  not  true,  that  there  has  come  about  a  com- 
plete reconciliation  between  religion  and  science,  and  that  the 
whole  trend  of  the  time  is  towards  the  acceptance  of  religion  in 
its  generally  received  interpretations.  The  fact  is,  that  never 
before  was  there  so  much  of  doubt  in  regard  to  the  fundamental 
beliefs  of  religion  as  there  is  at  the  present  moment.  Undoubt- 
edly, there  is  less  of  outspoken  criticism  of  the  old  beliefs  than 
there  was  a  half-century  ago;  but  there  is  abroad  far  more  of 
the  spirit  of  free  inquiry,  and  less  of  willingness  to  receive 
with  unquestioning  loyalty  the  accredited  beliefs  of  the  churches. 
There  is  taking  place  a  change  in  the  mental  attitude  of  think- 
ing men  and  women,  and  there  is  developing  a  mental  atmos- 
phere which  makes  belief  in  spirits  and  the  supernatural  less 
and  less  congenial  to  thought.  It  is  true  that  there  has  been  a 
great  awakening  of  interest  in  the  occult,  in  the  subtle  causes 
of  subconscious  phenomena ;  but  this  is  rather  materialistic  than 
spiritual,  result  of  a  craving  for  some  tangible  evidence  in  re- 

[389] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

gard  to  the  nature  of  the  soul  and  of  the  life  that  may  come 
when  this  one  has  ended.  While  these  two  tendencies  go  on  side 
by  side,  and  in  a  degree  intertwine  with  each  other,  it  is  not 
to  be  doubted  that  the  profoundest  movement  of  our  time  is 
towards  the  elimination  of  the  supernatural,  and  of  all  that  is 
occult  and  spiritualistic.  What  we  are  most  deeply  concerned 
with  is  the  future  of  man  on  this  earth  of  ours,  and  how  to  make 
his  life  finer  and  nobler. 

What  will  be  the  attitude  of  this  new  trend  of  thought  with 
reference  to  religion?  Will  it  discard  it  entirely?  as  seems  to 
be  the  tendency  indicated  by  Leuba's  investigations.  On  the 
other  hand,  there  are  many  hints  that  the  old  nature-worship 
may  revive,  even  though  H.  G.  Wells  may  hold  an  agnostic  at- 
titude towards  what  he  calls  the  Veiled  Being.  Eeligion  has 
grown  up  around  two  centers  of  influence,  that  drawing  it  to- 
wards nature  and  that  emphasizing  its  dependence  on  the  col- 
lective life  of  mankind.  As  we  have  seen  in  reviewing  the 
opinions  of  Wells,  Durkheim,  Kignano,  Sellars,  and  Baldwin, 
the  tendency  at  the  present  time  is  towards  ignoring  nature,  and 
placing  all  the  emphasis  on  the  human  side  of  religion.  The 
physical  world  is  often  stern,  forbidding,  cruel,  and  destructive ; 
and  it  requires  much  idealizing  of  its  forces  to  find  in  them 
what  is  gentle,  sympathetic,  and  responsive  to  the  needs  of 
human  beings. 

The  evidence  collected  by  Leuba  indicates  that  a  large 
majority  of  the  persons  answering  his  questionnaire  do  not  be 
lieve  in  a  material  god  or  one  that  can  be  seen,  heard  or  felt. 
The  conclusion  is  that  God  is  not  to  be  found  by  any  searching 
through  the  physical  universe.  If  we  could  ascend  up  into 
heaven  we  would  not  find  God  any  more  fully  or  positively  than 
we  find  him  here.  If  we  could  make  our  bed  in  hell  he  would 
not  be  there  more  tangibly  than  we  find  him  in  the  evils  that 

[390] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  KELIGION 

beset  man  on  the  earth.  If  we  could  take  the  wings  of  the 
morning,  and  dwell  in  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  sea,  his  hand 
would  not  lead  us  or  his  right  hand  hold  us  in  a  manner  differ- 
ent from  that  which  we  realize  each  day  right  where  we  are, 
and  under  the  conditions  now  known  to  us  in  all  our  experiences. 
How  can  we  think  that  the  darkness  will  cover  us  or  the  night 
be  light  for  us  in  any  other  degree  than  has  always  been  known 
to  mankind,  simply  and  solely  because  we  believe  in  a  personal 
God?  In  no  physical  sense  can  the  darkness  hide  God  from  us 
or  the  night  shine  as  the  day  or  that  the  two  must  be  to  him 
one  and  the  same.  Such  poetry  has  its  mighty  charm  and  its 
great  consolation  when  we  think  in  the  manner  of  the  animist 
or  the  anthropomorphist.  It  can  have  no  such  meaning  for  the 
modern  student  of  science  or  for  him  who  faces  the  world  as 
we  know  it  to-day. 

It  is  undoubtedly  this  truth  which  has  made  H.  G.  Wells 
refuse  to  see  God  in  nature  as  other  than  a  Veiled  Being.  No 
physical  exploration  of  the  universe  would  bring  God  nearer  to 
us  in  any  physical  or  tangible  form.  Could  we  explore  eternity, 
and  fly  through  the  infinite  or  go  forth  into  the  absolute,  what 
evidence  is  there  that  we  should  come  closer  to  God  than  we 
are  to  him  right  here  and  now  ?  No  senses  of  ours  can  make  him 
more  real  for  us,  and  no  evidences  of  reason  or  of  intellectual 
speculation,  can  bring  him  nearer  or  make  him  more  responsive 
to  our  prayers. 

God  i^^^nncrgle,  an  idea  or  an  ideal,  a  unifying  force 
throughout  the  universe,  an  energy  that  is  manifest  behind  all 
phenomena.  He  is  this  or  else  he  is  collective  man,  man  as  the 
spirit  which  binds  together  the  ages,  and  gives  meaning  to  all 
our  experiences.  God  as  collective  man  is  always  present  with 
us,  and  we  cannot  be  where  he  is  not.  We  cannot  escape  from 
his  presence  if  we  would,  and,  if  we  understand  ourselves,  we 

[391] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

cannot  wish  to  flee  away  from  what  is  human  in  its  largest  pro- 
portions and  in  its  deepest  meanings. 

However  unsatisfactory  such  a  conception  of  God  may  be 
to  some  persons,  we  may  be  certain  that  it  is  that  towards  which 
many  others  are  moving  as  making  it  alone  possible  for  them 
to  believe  in  God  at  all.  Unless  we  can  join  with  Goethe  in  con- 
ceiving of  the  universe  as  the  garment  of  God,  we  cannot  give 
him  a  tangible  form  or  invest  him  with  any  kind  of  physical 
proportions  or  features.  If  he  is  to  be  sought  for  anywhere  in 
the  physical  universe,  it  must  be  as  a  principle,  a  law  or  an 
underlying  energy. 

Otherwise,  we  must  seek  for  God  in  the  life  of  humanity. 
If  for  the  moment  we  are  willing  to  use  theological  language,  we 
may  say  that  God  is  incarnate  in  humanity,  typified  in  its 
humanness,  symbolized  in  its  unfolding  life  through  the  ages, 
and  embodied  in  every  man,  woman,  and  child.  That  is  what, 
in  fact,  God  has  meant  to  those  who  have  most  zealously  believed 
in  and  worshipped  him.  This  has  led  all  the  more  advanced 
religions  to  conceive  of  God  as  incarnating  himself  in  man.  We 
may  differ  from  these  older  interpreters  of  religion  in  the  be- 
lief that  God  incarnates  himself  in  the  unfolding  life  of  col- 
lective humanity,  and  not  alone  in  Jesus,  Buddha  or  any  other. 
Humanity  as  a  whole,  as  a  procession  through  the  centuries,  as 
giving  an  ideal  of  what  is  just,  wise,  and  beautiful  in  conduct, 
is  what  God  must  mean  for  us  of  to-day.  Such  an  idea  of  God 
robs  it  of  superstition  and  of  the  supernatural,  and  brings  him 
directly  into  the  world  of  human  interests  as  a  fact  and  as  a 
genuine  reality. 

In  all  ages,  however,  from  the  days  of  primitive  animism 
to  these  of  the  doctrine  of  the  immanence  of  God  in  nature,  the 
minds  of  men  have  been  drawn  towards  various  phases  of  the 
outward  world  with  subtle  sympathy  and  feelings  of  fellowship. 

[392] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

The  old  world  of  fawns,  dryads,  fairies,  and  other  similar  imag- 
inative creatures,  phased  a  strong  tendency  in  the  classic  age. 
Even  during  the  mediaeval  period,  the  most  spiritual  minded  of 
the  mystics  found  in  nature  responses  to  their  moods  of  faith 
and  joy  in  life.  Our  own  time  has  newly  awakened  this  tend- 
ency, as  we  see  in  the  great  poetry  of  Goethe,  Wordsworth, 
Emerson,  Whitman,  and  many  another.  Many  a  man  and 
woman  sees  God  in  the  wide  world  around  us,  in  the  glory  of 
sunrise,  sea,  flower,  and  star ;  and  in  many  a  phase  of  that  charm 
and  beauty  and  mystic  glow  which  spreads  over  nature  in 
choice  hours  of  sympathy  with  her.  The  grandeur  of  the  uni- 
verse, the  majesty  of  its  endless  spaces,  the  mightiness  of  its 
laws  and  its  forces  as  revealed  by  science,  will  forever,  we  may 
believe,  bring  back  to  man  that  awe,  that  reverence,  that  mystic 
response  of  the  heart,  which  appealed  in  one  way  or  another 
to  the  earliest  men.  Here  is  something  that  religion  has  devel- 
oped from  in  some  of  its  most  important  phases,  and  this 
tendency  is  not  likely  to  grow  less  through  any  time  to  come 
for  imaginative  minds  or  for  poetic  natures.  We  may  see  no 
fairies  in  the  woods,  find  no  supernatural  powers  lurking  in  the 
spaces  of  the  sky  or  any  great  gods  hiding  in  the  vastness.of  the 
universe ;  but  not  the  less  will  nature  charm,  inspire  and  elevate 
us  through  all  the  times  to  come.  The  Veiled  Being  may  for- 
ever remain  veiled,  but  that  will  not  keep  him  from  holding 
intercourse  with  the  poet  and  with  the  worshipping  heart. 

Nor  is  that  other  source  of  religion,  the  nature  of  man,  and 
especially  man  as  a  collective  being,  ever  likely  to  lose  any  of 
his  power  to  quicken  the  mind  and  warm  the  heart.  In  all  prob- 
ability, the  mythical  and  mystical  interpretations  of  man's  life, 
which  have  found  numberless  expressions  in  religion,  will 
gradually  disappear;  and  religion  will  come  more  and  more  to 
concern  itself  with  making  the  world  a  fit  place  in  which  men 

[393] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

may  live,  and  the  life  of  man  fit  to  occupy  a  world  brought  into 
subjection  to  human  needs.  No  other  tasks  can  be  greater  than 
these,  and  none  are  likely  in  the  future  to  inspire  men  with  such 
courage  and  faith.  And  about  the  developing  course  of  man's 
evolving  life  may  gather  all  courage,  heroism,  sacrifice,  and 
loyalty.  Men  will  learn  not  to  make  war  on  each  other,  to  co- 
operate nation  with  nation  for  the  promotion  of  every  phase  of 
human  welfare,  and  to  advance  all  those  interests  which  protect 
the  good  of  the  individual  and  give  strength  and  glory  to  the 
lives  of  nations. 

If  we  think  that  these  great  humanitarian  tasks  may  be 
only  materialistic,  without  charm  and  poetry,  with  nothing  in 
them  to  inspire  with  great  visions  or  invigorate  with  masterful 
ideals,  then  we  have  not  read  aright  the  history  of  mankind. 
The  age-long  wars  of  man  with  man,  of  nation  with  nation,  may 
be  turned  into  conquests  over  nature,  the  bringing  all  that  is 
possible  of  its  forces  into  subjection  to  man's  needs.  Here  is 
field  for  all  the  bravery  men  have  ever  had,  as  there  is  in  the 
subduing  of  disease,  the  application  of  the  great  industrial  and 
economic  forces  of  the  world  to  the  benefit  of  all  who  live.  The 
glories  of  chivalry,  the  glamor  and  the  pride  and  the  charm  of 
it  may  be  directed  into  these  new  channels,  and  men  will  go 
forth  to  fight  the  real  evils  men  suffer  under,  as  they  did  to  bat- 
tle in  the  tournaments  of  old.  The  spirit  of  it  may  not  be  other, 
but  the  effects  of  it  will  be  the  upbuilding  of  all  that  is 
human,  instead  of  the  destruction  of  individual  and  nation. 
When  we  turn  our  religion,  our  chivalry,  our  love  of  adventure, 
our  desire  to  come  into  intimate  communion  with  God,  and 
all  that  lies  subtly  hidden  in  the  deeper  and  mightier  forces  of 
the  spiritual  world,  we  shall  be  ready  for  these  fresh  endeavors, 
these  attempts  to  serve  man  and  to  make  his  career  on  earth  some- 
thing noble  and  truly  ethical.  It  may  be  that  such  a  vision  of 

[394] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  BELIGION 

what  religion  may  do  for  the  future  of  the  race  may  not  quicken 
any  heart-throbs  in  some  persons,  that  it  will  appear  to  be  merely 
something  humanitarian,  and  therefore  not  of  a  kind  to  inspire ; 
but  undoubtedly,  nevertheless,  the  number  of  those  with  each 
generation  is  growing  greater  who  are  ready  to  hear  such  a 
clarion  call  to  religion  and  the  real  salvation  of  the  world. 

VI 

Too  long  have  we  listened  to  the  metaphysicians  and  the 
theologians.  They  have  not  led  us  to  the  green  meadows  of 
life,  but  into  a  tangled  wilderness  of  subtleties  and  abstractions. 
All  their  beliefs  and  dogmas  may  well  be  swept  away,  since  all 
of  them  have  grown  out  of  the  primitive  animism  in  one  form 
or  another  of  mythology  or  personification  of  the  forces  of  nature 
and  of  man.  May  we  not  courageously  say  to  them  to-day  that 
we  are  done  with  them,  for  they  have  been  false  leaders,  who 
have  made  life  dark  and  forbidding!  We  are  now  ready  for 
art,  for  poetry,  for  music,  for  what  brightens  and  glorifies  life. 
Too  much  have  we  heard  of  sin  and  banishment  from  God,  and 
a  fallen  world,  and  the  mediating  power  of  one  or  another 
noble  and  gracious  mind.  We  have  come  now  to  believe  in  all 
men  and  women  who  live,  the  meanest  as  well  as  the  greatest. 
We  are  coming  to  see  with  H.  G.  Wells,  that  the  world  can  never 
be  truly  happy  until  all  lords  and  kings  and  owners  are  ban- 
ished, and  all  men  and  women  are  brought  into  the  acceptance 
of  what  life  has  to  give  of  wisdom,  opportunity,  and  happiness. 
The  religion  which  reserves  the  world's  joy  and  beauty  for  a 
few  favored  ones  on  earth  or  in  heaven  no  longer  appeals  to  us. 
We  see  that  the  world  is  beautiful,  that  the  music  of  it,  the  art 
of  it,  the  poetry  of  it  should  be  for  all  who  live.  Why  has  not 
religion  banished  the  slums,  harried  out  of  the  world  the  ghet- 

[395] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

toes,  made  impossible  the  simpleton  and  the  beggar?  That  it 
has  not  we  think  to  be  the  greatest  possible  criticism  of  its  meth- 
ods and  its  aspirations.  No  excuse  that  its  tasks  have  been  other, 
that  it  was  leading  men  the  way  to  peace  of  soul  and  to  heaven, 
can  save  it  from  the  condemnation  it  deserves  because  of  its 
infidelity  to  man,  the  greatest  and  the  most  dangerous  of  all 
infidelities  —  and  the  only  one  that  is  worthy  of  a  moment's 
consideration. 

The  metaphysicians  and  the  theologians  have  made  for  us 
two  worlds,  a  world  of  material  interests,  and  a  world  of  what 
is  spiritual.  The  one  world  is  that  of  food,  clothing,  houses, 
and  the  affairs  of  industry  and  economic  interests.  The  other 
world  is  that  of  ghosts,  spirits,  and  gods,  of  what  belongs  to  the 
soul  and  to  the  world  beyond  the  borders  of  time  and  space. 
These  two  worlds  have  been  made  antagonistic  to  each  other, 
the  one  base  and  the  other  noble,  the  one  material  and  the  other 
spiritual.  The  one  is  of  earth  and  the  other  of  heaven ;  one  be- 
longing to  the  present,  the  other  to  the  future. 

We  have  come  more  and  more  to  think  that  there  is  no  such 
antagonism  of  these  worlds  as  the  theologians  and  the  philos- 
ophers have  assumed.  Our  thought  is  that  there  is  but  one 
world,  that  world-unity  is  the  true  conception.  The  antagonism 
of  matter  and  mind  is  not  real,  but  artificial,  a  merely  meta- 
physical creation.  We  know  body  and  mind  only  as  one  organ- 
ism, never  separated,  never  truly  in  opposition.  The  belief 
that  they  are  two,  and  not  one,  is  product  of  the  primitive 
animism,  the  succeeding  anthropomorphism,  and  the  still  later 
succeeding  metaphysics.  Science  knows  no  such  distinction, 
and  gives  it  no  true  support.  The  life  of  man  is  one,  and  the 
world  is  one. 

We  must  think  that  there  is  for  the  modern  mind  no  world 
within  a  world,  no  spiritual  universe  within  the  material  uni- 

[396] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  KELIGION 

verse.  This,  too,  is  result  of  the  primitive  animism,  and  when 
we  turn  back  to  that  we  see  whence  the  conception  of  a  world 
of  sense  and  a  world  of  ghosts  or  spirits  has  its  origin.  It  is 
time  we  eliminated  from  our  thinking  this  doubleness  of  the 
world  we  know,  and  declared  for  the  unity  of  nature  and 
humanity,  matter  and  mind.  We  have  been  deluding  ourselves 
with  an  antagonism  of  materialism  and  spiritualism  or  idealism. 
We  have  forgotten  that  if  man  is  of  the  earth  earthy,  that  earth- 
iness  enables  him  to  live  as  a  human  being,  and  that  without  it 
his  life  would  speedily  come  to  an  end.  We  have  made  material- 
ism as  a  philosophy  to  mean  baseness  of  living,  absorption  in 
gross  interests,  devotion  to  self  and  to  all  that  is  mean;  and 
therefore  we  have  condemned  it.  As  a  fact,  philosophical  ma- 
terialism is  no  more  gross  or  selfish  than  the  highest  idealism; 
and  we  have  made  it  so  only  by  confounding  interests  and  ideas 
which  have  no  true  relation  with  each  other.  Speculative  con- 
ceptions as  to  the  origin  and  nature  of  the  universe  have  no 
necessary  relation  to  the  ethical  life  of  the  individual  or  the  na- 
tion. Our  theories  as  to  the  origin  and  nature  of  matter,  and 
its  relations  to  mind,  do  not  determine  our  moral  conduct. 

We  cannot  doubt  that  we  live  in  a  world  of  realities  respon- 
sive to  the  senses,  that  is,  in  a  world  of  environing  conditions, 
which  in  large  degree  determine  our  individual  lives  and  the 
nature  of  our  civilization.  Within  that  world  of  concrete  reality 
man  has  always  been  inclined  to  accept  the  existence  of  another 
world,  a  world  not  known  to  the  senses.  What  is  the  true 
nature  of  that  world?  The  history  we  have  passed  in  review 
ought  to  have  given  us  the  clue  to  its  origin  and  its  nature.  But 
we  have  not  forgotten  the  primitive  animism,  the  anthropo- 
morphism of  the  barbarian  races,  and  the  metaphysics  of  the 
more  advanced  peoples.  We  have  speculated  as  to  the  relations 

[397] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  EELIGION 

of  body  and  mind,  matter  and  spirit,  and  we  have  entangled 
ourselves  in  abstract  theories,  in  speculations  having  no  basis 
in  reality. 

"What  we  are  coming  to  see  very  slowly,  but  more  and 
more  clearly,  is  that  this  antagonism  of  body  and  mind,  matter 
and  spirit,  is  one  created  by  ourselves,  and  has  no  basis  in  the 
nature  of  the  universe  itself.  Within  the  material  world  there 
is  another  world,  we  may  rightly  admit;  but  that  other  world 
is  of  man's  own  creation.  It  is  the  world  of  myth  and  religion, 
art  and  science,  literature  and  philosophy,  morality  and  ethics, 
culture  and  civilization.  These  all  have  been  created  by  man  as 
the  result  of  his  nature  as  man,  because  of  his  humanity.  From 
the  lowliest  beginning  with  the  chipping  of  stones  and  erecting 
wind-breaks  as  a  sort  of  habitation,  and  the  gathering  of  food 
from  where  it  might  be  had  as  produced  by  the  spontaneities  of 
nature,  he  has  slowly  and  painfully,  through  countless  centuries, 
built  up  all  that  world  of  the  advancing  civilization  and  the 
developing  inner  life  which  have  made  him  what  he  is.  It  is 
man's  creation  from  its  lowliest  to  its  highest  forms,  and  he 
lives  the  life  now  of  what  we  call  spirituality  or  idealism  be- 
cause he  has  been  making  for  himself  within  the  earthly  world 
of  his  material  habitation  another  world  of  a  kind  fitted  to  his 
own  needs. 

It  would  be  the  merest  dogmatism  to  say  that  it  is  impos- 
sible that  there  should  have  come  to  man  from  without  his  own 
life,  from  some  other  world  than  that  in  which  he  knows  himself 
to  live,  aids  he  could  not  otherwise  secure  in  this  great  process 
of  building  up  the  world  of  his  inner  development  or  the  spir- 
itualization  of  his  civilization.  All  the  claims  made  for  such 
an  outside  intervention,  however,  do  not  historically  justify 
themselves.  They  lead  to  every  manner  and  degree  of  assump- 

[398] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

tion,  and  to  all  the  subtleties  and  abstractions  of  theology  and 
metaphysics. 

We  still  cling  to  the  acceptance  of  a  double  world,  a  universe 
within  a  universe,  because  we  are  afraid  otherwise,  in  the  rejec- 
tion of  this  conception,  we  will  lose  our  faith  in  a  personal  conti- 
nuity of  our  individual  being  hereafter.  We  have  already  seen, 
however,  that  the  old  supports  of  that  belief  are  falling  off  from 
all  thinking  men  and  women,  and  that  none  of  the  evidences  for 
such  continuity  are  truly  valid  for  our  time.  As  yet  there  is 
no  positive  proof  that  man  will  live  beyond  the  grave,  and  the 
promise  of  the  future  is  that  science  will  bring  us  some  light  on 
that  problem.  Unless  it  does  so  there  can  be  no  more  than 
belief  in  regard  to  immortality.  Some  investigators  go  so  far 
as  to  assert  that  we  are  on  the  very  verge  of  such  assurance; 
but  as  yet  they  have  brought  us  no  proof  that  will  convince  all 
inquiring  minds.  That  way  lies  possibility;  but  we  may  not 
cling  stubbornly  to  what  is  merely  traditional  in  order  to  assure 
ourselves  by  such  broken  supports  that  individuality  has  be- 
fore it  the  prospect  of  eternity  as  concerns  its  own  littleness 
within  the  limits  of  the  universe. 

An  ever-increasing  number  of  men  and  women,  however, 
will  dare  to  think  that  there  are  problems  of  far  greater  im- 
portance than  the  continuity  of  our  individuality,  which  is  as- 
sured to  us,  surely,  in  the  life  of  the  race.  These  independent 
minds,  also,  will  be  brave  enough  to  believe  that  the  universe 
is  a  unity,  and  that  the  inner  world,  the  spiritual  universe,  is  a 
part  of  man's  culture  and  civilization,  that  he  has  created  these 
as  a  phase  of  his  progressive  advance  through  the  ages,  and 
that  he  is  ever  enlarging  their  scope  and  their  certainties.  He 
cannot  be  balked  of  this  universe  he  has  made  for  his  own  en- 
largement of  life,  and  his  own  inner  growth  in  what  makes  for 
justice  and  wisdom. 

[399] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

vn 

Do  we  wish  to-day  to  find  the  most  elevated,  the  most  in- 
spiring, the  most  spiritual,  religion?  It  is  on  the  canvas  of  the 
painter,  on  the  pages  of  the  poet  or  maybe  the  novelist.  Turn 
with  deeply  averted  face  from  the  prosy  preacher  of  traditions 
and  myths,  in  the  shape  of  theology  and  supernatural  religion, 
if  you  wish  to  hear  the  words  which  burn  and  the  thoughts  that 
quicken  life ;  and  go  to  that  great  poet,  the  social  creator,  who  in 
all  ages  has  made  religion,  and  given  joy  and  beauty  to  the  heart 
of  man.  In  him  and  his  kind  you  may  find  life  and  uplifting 
vision;  but  not  in  the  preacher,  unless  he  too  is  a  poet  or  cre- 
ator, and  one  who  is  deeply  moved  by  the  needs  and  the  striv- 
ings of  mankind. 

We  have  lived  in  the  old  traditions  of  the  past,  and  they 
now  cling  to  us  and  drag  us  downwards  to  death  of  the  free- 
moving  spirit.  What  we  have  need  to  recognize  is,  that  new 
traditions  are  growing,  that  new  ideals  are  shaping  themselves 
in  the  life  of  our  time.  These  masterful  ideas,  of  beauty  in  the 
individual  life,  of  a  spirit  of  loyalty  and  devotion,  of  brother- 
hood and  fellowship  throughout  all  the  world  of  humanity,  of 
peace  between  all  nations,  of  world-unity  and  a  parliament  of 
man,  of  a  religion  which  inspires  all  the  strivings  of  man  with 
hope  and  courage,  are  coming  more  and  more  to  quicken  the 
minds  and  hearts  of  the  men  and  women  of  our  day.  Freedom 
and  opportunity  for  the  workers  of  the  world,  freedom  and  op- 
portunity for  women  everywhere  —  these  are  motives  linking 
themselves  with  the  newer  religion  now  being  born.  Care  of 
every  child  coming  into  the  world,  training  him  to  live  for  and 
with  his  kind,  is  motive  that  touches  the  inmost  core  of  any  re- 
ligion that  can  have  meaning  for  the  years  to  come.  That  none 
shall  be  born  under  base  and  mean  conditions,  that  none  shall 

[400] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

grow  in  ignorance  or  suffer  needless  hunger  and  want  in  a  world 
that  is  filled  with  superabundance,  must  be  part  of  the  coming 
religion  or  men  will  turn  from  the  very  name  of  it  and  all  that 
it  has  been  held  to  mean. 

The  preceding  pages  have  revealed  to  us  the  fact  that  man, 
collectively  and  individually,  has  great  creative  capacity.  When 
we  review  the  history  of  the  arts  and  sciences,  the  growth  of 
culture  and  civilization,  the  development  of  cities  and  nations, 
we  may  realize  what  great  constructive  genius  man  possesses.^ 
Nor  can  we  ignore  the  evolution  of  folk-lore,  legend  and  myth- 
ology, the  remarkable  creations  of  every  tribe  and  people,  each 
and  all  interesting  and  impressive,  however  simple  and  unimag- 
inative they  may  seem  to  be.  We  have  no  hesitation  in  saying 
that  these  mythologies,  wonderful  and  startlingly  masterful  as 
many  of  them  are,  may  be  regarded  as  mere  fancies  of  the 
imaginative  mind.  So  we  say  of  some  of  the  myths  underlying 
the  great  religions  of  the  past  and  the  present.  But  the  Bud- 
dhist and  the  Zoroastrian  retorts  on  us  that  our  religion,  of 
which  we  boast  its  reasonableness  and  its  truthfulness,  is  no 
other  in  its  origin  than  his  own.  It  has  in  it  as  much  of  myth- 
ology as  either  of  the  others,  and  its  basis  in  myth  is  quite  as 
certain.  Such  retort  of  one  religion  against  another  cannot  in- 
terest the  inquiring  mind,  for  he  sees  plainly  enough  that  all  are 
growths  from  the  nature  of  man,  and  that  the  man  who  created 
these  religions  under  the  conditions  of  the  past  can  produce 
greater  ones  in  the  time  to  come.  Collective  man  has  brought<^ 
into  existence  every  religion  known  to  history,  and  what  he  has 
once  and  again  produced  he  can  not  only  renew,  but  create  greater 
and  more  adequate  types  of  religion  for  the  future.  This  will  be 
one  of  the  great  tasks  he  will  undertake  in  the  forthcoming  years. 
In  the  past  he  has  produced  mythologies  and  religions  uncon- 
sciously or  subconsciously ;  but  in  the  future  he  will  create  with  a 

[401] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  KELIGION 

larger  consciousness  of  what  he  needs  and  of  what  will  be  for  the 
inspiring  and  the  glorifying  of  humanity. 

This  also  we  are  to  recognize,  that  man  by  means  of  his  arts, 
his  sciences,  his  religions,  his  ethical  systems,  has  created  for 
himself  a  spiritual  world,  a  world  of  hopes  and  dreams  and  vi- 
sions, within  the  material  world ;  and  in  this  he  dwells  as  in  the 
real  and  assured  world  of  his  desires.  He  wishes  to  escape 
from  the  drudgeries  and  brutalities  and  miseries  of  his  daily 
life,  and  he  passes  into  this  other  world  of  his  ideals  and  his 
spiritual  aspirations,  this  world  of  his  own  creation,  as  into 
a  secure  haven  of  peace  and  joy.  No  one  man  made  this 
spiritual  world,  no  prophet  or  poet  or  artist  could  have  brought 
it  into  existence ;  but  all  the  men  and  women  of  all  the  ages  have 
made  it  to  be  what  it  is.  What  has  been  brought  into  existence, 
and  into  an  existence  so  real  and  secure  that  many  persons 
think  it  the  only  world  that  has  any  true  meaning,  is  now  every 
day  being  modified,  revised,  improved,  newly  created,  and  made 
worthier  of  human  habitation.  Therefore,  we  are  not  to  despair 
when  the  old  religion  slips  from  the  minds  of  youth  and  of  the 
thinking  men  and  women,  for  a  new  world  is  being  created 
within  the  old  one,  far  more  beautiful,  much  truer  to  the  facts 
of  man's  nature,  and  far  better  calculated  to  inspire  and  to 
uplift. 

"What  man  has  made,  man  can  make  again.  He  has  created 
many  a  spiritual  world  in  the  past,  and  he  can  build  more 
stately  mansions  for  the  soul  in  the  years  to  come.  The  old 
creations  were  visionary,  largely  unreal,  of  the  substance  of 
dreams,  shot  through  with  nightmare  visions;  but  the  newer 
realms  of  the  spirit  will  be  finer,  with  sounder  basic  founda- 
tions in  human  nature,  and  with  loftier  possibilities  for  the 
advancing  of  all  human  interests.  Religion,  therefore,  is  not 
passing  away,  but  coming  into  its  own.  It  may,  and  doubtless 


402] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

will,  lose  the  supernatural  and  the  miraculous,  its  saints  and 
its  prophets;  but  it  will  gain  in  the  multitude  of  its  faithful 
men  and  women,  in  those  who  have  the  qualities  of  the  hero, 
and  who  can  give  themselves  unstintedly  for  the  service  of  their 
fellows.  We  may  welcome  with  joy  the  day  of  this  new  and 
more  beauteous  religion,  for  it  means  that  what  belongs  to 
human  welfare  will  grow  marvelously  in  every  part  of  the  world, 
and  among  all  the  races  of  men. 


[403] 


APPENDIX  TO  CHAPTER  I 

Since  this  chapter  was  written  there  has  appeared  a  very 
careful  interpretation  of  the  processes  of  evolution,  in  the  form 
of  the  lectures  of  Henry  Fairfield  Osborn  on  The  Origin  and 
Evolution  of  Life.  In  this  work  he  states  clearly  why  the 
hypothesis  of  the  inheritance  of  acquired  characters  is  not 
to  be  fully  accepted  at  the  present  day.  A  summary  of  his 
conclusions  is  here  presented  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  may 
be  especially  interested  in  this  subject. 

What  Osborn  believes  is  the  fundamental  biologic  law  he 
states 'in  these  words:  "In  each  organism  the  phenomena  of 
life  represent  the  action,  reaction,  and  interaction  of  four 
complexes  of  physico-chemical  energy,  namely,  those  of  (1) 
the  inorganic  environment,  (2)  the  developing  organism(  pro- 
toplasm and  body-chromatin),  (3)  the  germ  of  heredity-chro- 
matin,  (4)  the  life  environment.  Upon  the  resultant  actions, 
reactions,  and  interactions  of  potential  and  kinetic  energy  in 
each  organism  selection  is  constantly  operating  wherever  there 
is  competition  with  the  corresponding  actions,  reactions,  and 
interactions  of  other  organisms."  This  law,  if  it  does  not 
wholly  discard  the  theory  of  Lamarckianism  does  by  no  means 
give  it  sanction. 

Recent  investigations  are  to  the  effect  that  chromatin 
and  protoplasm  are  the  earliest  elements  of  life,  that  they  are 
physico-chemically  produced  and  that  the  first  is  possibly  the 
more  ancient.  Primitive  chromatin  and  protoplasm  appear 
to  co-exist,  cells  arising  by  symbiosis  between  the  two.  Chro- 
matin is  the  seat  of  heredity,  and  the  evolution  of  its  energies 

[405] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

is  essentially  the  evolution  of  life.  "It  is  in  the  inconceivable 
physico-chemical  complexity  of  the  microscopic  specks  of  chro- 
mation,"  says  Osborn,  "that  life  presents  its  most  marked 
contrast  to  any  of  the  phenomena  observed  within  the  life- 
less world. " 

The  mutations  of  de  Vries,  which  occur  more  frequently 
among  plants  than  animals,  are  attributable  to  sudden  altera- 
tions of  molecular  and  atomic  constitution  in  the  heredity- 
chromatin,  or  to  the  altered  forms  of  energy  supplied  to  the 
chromatin  during  development.  At  the  stage  of  the  simple- 
celled  organisms  it  would  seem  that  the  organism-protoplasm 
is  the  more  sensitive  to  environment,  while  the  heredity-chro- 
matin  is  the  more  insensitive  to  environment,  and  the  more 
stable,  in  that  it  has  the  quality  of  conserving  and  reproducing 
hereditary  characters  true  to  type,  as  in  the  many-celled  ani- 
mals in  which  the  heredity-chromatin  is  deeply  buried  within 
the  tissue  of  the  organism  remote  from  direct  environmental 
reactions. 

Osborn  has  this  to  say  in  regard  to  the  operation  of  en- 
vironment on  the  lower  forms  of  life :  ' l  Changes  of  environ- 
ment play  so  large  and  conspicuous  a  part  in  the  selection 
and  elimination  of  the  invertebrates  that  the  assertion  is  often 
made  that  environment  is  the  cause  of  evolution,  a  statement 
only  partly  consistent  with  our  fundamental  biologic  law, 
which  finds  that  the  causes  of  evolution  lie  within  the  four 
complexes  of  action,  reaction,  and  interaction/' 

He  proceeds  to  say  that  new  characters  arise  definitely, 
continuously,  and  adaptively.  He  regards  this  gradual  evolu- 
tion of  adaptive  form  as  directly  contrary  to  Darwin's  theo- 
retic principle  of  the  selection  of  chance  variations.  In  the 
following  statement  he  points  out  why  it  is  that  the  heredity 
of  acquired  characters  has  been  denied,  though  he  refuses  to 

[406] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

accept  that  denial  as  found  under  all  circumstances.  "A  clear 
distinction  exists  between  the  slow,  stable  heredity-chromatin, 
or  germ  evolution,  and  the  unstable  body  cell  evolution  as 
viewed  by  the  experimental  zoologist.  The  body  is  unstable 
because  it  is  immediately  sensitive  to  all  variations  of  environ- 
ment, growth,  and  habit,  while  the  chromatin  alters  very 
slowly.  The  peculiar  significance  of  heredity-chromatin,  when 
viewed  in  the  long  perspective  of  geologic  time,  is  its  stability 
in  combination  with  incessant  plasticity  and  adaptability  to 
varying  environmental  conditions  and  new  forms  of  bodily 
action.  Chromatin  is  far  more  stable  than  the  surface  of  the 
earth. " 

Then  the  Lamarckian  theory  of  evolution  is  taken  up,  and, 
in  accordance  with  the  preceding  statement,  is  defined  in  mod- 
ern terms  to  be  the  cause  of  the  genesis  of  new  form  or  new 
function  that  are  to  be  sought  in  the  body  cells  (soma),  on 
the  assumption  that  the  cellular  actions,  reactions  and  inter- 
actions with  each  other  and  with  the  environment  are  in  some 
way  impressed  upon  and  heritable  by  the  chromatin.  This 
theory,  that  a  change  in  environment,  habit  and  function 
leads  to  changes  in  the  evolutionary  series  Osborn  does  not 
find  to  be  fully  sustained  by  the  more  recent  investigations. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Darwinian  theory  of  evolution, 
that  the  genesis  of  new  form  and  function  is  to  be  sought  in 
the  germ  cells  or  chromatin  is  equally  defective,  in  the  light 
of  recent  knowledge.  The  hypothesis  that  the  actions,  reac- 
tions and  interactions  which  cause  certain  bodily  organs  to 
originate,  to  develop,  or  to  degenerate,  to  exhibit  momentum 
or  inertia  in  development,  do  not  give  rise  to  corresponding 
sets  of  predispositions  in  the  chromatin,  and  are  thus  not  herit- 
able, is  also  wanting  in  full  verification.  Neither  theory  ac- 
cords with  the  recent  results  of  investigation  in  palaeontology 

[407] 


THE   SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

and  experimental  zoology  as  to  the  actual  modes  of  origin 
and  development  of  adaptive  characters. 

"That  there  may  be  elements  of  truth  in  each  explanation 
is  evident  from  the  following  consideration  of  our  fundamental 
biologic  law.  Adaptive  characters  present  three  phases:  first, 
the  origin  of  character  form  and  character  function;  second, 
the  more  or  less  rapid  acceleration  or  retardation  of  character 
form  or  function;  third,  the  co-ordination  and  co-operation  of 
character  form  and  function.  If  we  adopt  the  physico-chemical 
theory  of  the  origin  and  development  of  life  it  follows  that 
the  causes  of  such  origin,  velocity  (acceleration  or  retardation) 
and  co-operation  must  be  somewhere  within  the  actions,  re- 
actions, and  interactions  of  the  four  physico-chemical  com- 
plexes, namely,  the  physical  environment,  the  developing  or- 
ganism, the  heredity-chromatin,  the  living  environment,  because 
these  are  the  only  reservoirs  of  matter  and  energy  we  know  of 
in  life  history. " 

The  causes  of  evolution,  according  to  Osborn,  are  to  be 
found,  not  so  much  in  the  interaction  of  environment  and  or- 
ganism as  in  the  physico-chemical  energy  resulting  from  the  ac- 
tions, reactions  and  interactions  of  different  parts  of  the  or- 
ganism itself.  The  law  according  to  which  changes  proceed 
is  unknown  as  yet.  "The  only  vista  which  we  enjoy  at  present 
of  a  possible  future  explanation  of  the  causes  of  character 
origin,  character  velocity,  and  character  co-operation  is  through 
chemical  catalysis,  namely,  through  the  hypothesis  that  all 
the  actions  and  reactions  of  form  and  of  motion  liberate  speci- 
fic catalytic  messengers,  such  as  ferments,  enzymes,  hormones, 
chalones,  and  other  as  yet  undiscovered  chemical  messengers, 
which  produce  specific  and  co-operating  interactions  in  every 
character  complex  of  the  organism  and  corresponding  predis- 
position in  the  physico-chemical  energies  of  the  germ;  in  other 

[408] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

words,  that  the  accelerators,  balances,  and  retarders  of  body 
cell  development  also  affect  the  germ " 

"The  chromatin  as  the  potential  energy  of  form  and  func- 
tion is  at  once  the  most  conservative  and  the  most  progressive 
center  of  physico-chemical  evolution;  it  records  the  body  form 
or  past  adaptations,  it  meets  the  emergencies  of  the  present 
through  the  adaptability  to  new  conditions  which  it  imparts 
to  the  organism  in  its  distribution  throughout  every  living 
cell ;  it  is  continuously  giving  rise  to  new  characters  and  func- 
tions. Taking  the  whole  history  of  vertebrate  life,  from  the 
beginning,  we  observe  that  every  prolonged,  old  adaptive 
phase  in  a  similar  habitat  becomes  impressed  in  the  hereditary 
characters  of  the  chromatin.  Throughout  the  development  of 
new  adaptive  phases  the  chromatin  always  retains  more  or 
less  potentiality  of  repeating  the  embryonic,  immature,  and 
more  rarely  some  of  the  mature  structures  of  older  adaptive 
phases  in  the  older  environments. " 

Osborn  reaches  the  conclusion  that  palaeontology  provides 
positive  disproof  of  the  existence  of  an  internal  perfecting 
principle  or  entelechy  of  any  kind,  such  as  has  been  assumed 
to  exist  by  some  Lamarckians  and  vitalists.  No  such  princi- 
ple exists  which  would  impel  animals  to  evolve  in  a  given  di- 
rection regardless  of  the  direct,  reversed,  or  alternating  direc- 
tions taken  by  the  organism  when  seeking  its  life  environment. 
He  also  finds  that  there  is  conclusive  evidence  against  Berg- 
son's  theory  of  an  elan  vital  or  internal  perfecting  tendency. 
The  characters  assumed  to  be  produced  in  this  manner  do  not 
spring  up  autonomously  at  any  time;  but  they  lie  dormant  or 
remain  rudimentary  for  great  periods  of  time.  They  require 
something  to  call  them  forth,  to  make  them  active. 

The  conclusion  is  also  reached  that  Lamarckianism  has 
sought  in  vain  for  evidence  of  the  inheritance  of  the  effects  of 

[409] 


THE  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  RELIGION 

such  action  and  reaction  processes  as  those  on  which  its  claims 
are  based.  Nevertheless,  there  exists  some  kind  of  relation 
between  the  action,  reaction  and  interaction  of  the  germ,  or 
of  the  organism  and  the  environment.  Probably  this  opinion 
is  capable  of  experimental  proof  or  disproof,  but  that  result 
has  not  as  yet  been  reached.  "We  know,  for  example,  that 
certain  cells  of  the  reproductive  glands  have  a  profound  and 
commanding  influence  on  the  body  cells,  including  even  the 
brain-cell  centers  of  thought  and  intelligence  —  all  this  is,  in 
a  sense,  an  out-flowing  from  the  heredity-germ  region,  a  cen- 
trifugal interaction. ' ' 


[410] 


Index 


Abnormality,  religion  and,   31-33. 
Acquired    characters,    inheritance   of,    5, 

404,  406,  408. 
Agrarian  rites,  96-97,  148,  155-156,  223- 

225. 

Agriculture,   45,    148,    155-156. 
Amalgamation    and    affiliation,    193-194, 

201,    294-295. 
Amalgamation    of    religions,     230,     325- 

326. 
Ancestor-worship,       168-180,       195-196. 

See   Patriarchalism. 
Animals,   9-10,   127-134. 
Animal  gods,    128-129. 
Animalism,   116. 
Animism,    116-118,    143,    179,    185,    195- 

196,     273-274,     397.       See    Ancestor- 
worship  and  Patriarchalism. 
Anthropomorphism,     185. 
Apocalypses,  259-260. 
Apocrapha,  Old  Testament,  260. 
Arabia,  202-203,  300-302. 
Arabian    desert,     influence    on    religion, 

299-303. 

Aristotle,   164-165,  274-275. 
Aryan  religion,   173,  208-226,  230. 
Aryans,  migrations  of,  295-296. 
Atheism,   378. 

Atonement  or  expiation,   266-271. 
Augustine,   Saint,   quoted,   261. 
Avesta,    213-214.      See    Zoroaster. 


B 

Babylonia,  religion  of,  161,  205-208, 
306. 

Bahaism,  289,  316-317.  See  Moham- 
medanism. 

Baldwin,  James  Mark,  quoted,  13,  381- 
384. 

Bards  or  rhapsodists,  84,  89,  92.  See 
Recitations  and  Epic  poems. 

Bergson,   Henri,   quoted,    354-355. 

Bhagavad-gita,  83,  85,  266.  See  Ma- 
habharata. 

Bible,  Jewish,  86-87.     See  Sacred  books. 

Birth-tales  of  Buddha,  246,  252.  See 
Virgin-birth. 

Blood-feud,    146,    187. 

Boas,  Franz,  quoted,  122-123,  125. 


Bosanquet,  Henry,   quoted,   338. 

Brahman,    218-220. 

Brahmanism,    218-220. 

Brahma  Samaj,   315. 

Breasted,   J.  H.,  quoted,  37-38. 

Breath,    112-114. 

Brinton.   Daniel  G.,   quoted,   56. 

Buddha,     222,     239-242,     246-247,     253, 

271. 
Buddhism,    39,    231,    239-251. 

and    Christianity,    247-250. 

in  Ceylon,  246. 

in  China,   247-248,   256-257. 

conception   of   God,   243. 

conception   of  future   life,   244-245. 

fundamental  teachings  of,   241-242, 
243. 

in  Japan,   247. 

monks   of,    242-243. 

Nirvana  of,  244. 

origin  of,  239-241,  297. 

in  Siam,  250-251. 

spread    of,    245,    291. 
Budge,   Wallis,   quoted,    171. 
Burkitt,  F.  Crawford,  quoted,  259. 
Burroughs,   John,   quoted,   352. 


Caddoan  Tribes,   74,   78. 

Caird,  Edward,   quoted,   338. 

Caste  in  India,   181-182,   218-219. 

Celtic  religion,  210-212. 

Cheyne,  T.  K.,  quoted,  263. 

Chief  becoming  autocratic  lord,  152,  154. 

Childhood,   social  influence  of,  2,   10-12, 

21,   34-35,   42,    60,    110,    118,    129. 
China,  318. 
Chinese  religion,  159-160,  164,  178,  194- 

197,  230-231. 

Christian  church,  99-100,  102. 
Christianity    255,    281,    291,    328,    331- 

332,   834-335. 

in   melting-pot,    331-332,    335,    341- 

342,    380,    385-387. 
origin   of,    235,    251-254,    261,    280. 

See  Jesus  Christ. 
City-State,    150,    153. 
Clan,    supremacy    of,    55-56,    132,    145- 

146,    149-150.      See   Tribe. 
Collective    mind,    56-58,     106-109,    239, 

401-402.      See    Mind. 


[411] 


INDEX 


Communal  houses,  67.  See  Communal 
society. 

Communion  in  eating  and  drinking,  272- 
273. 

Communal  society,  59,  64,  104,  150, 
153,  183. 

Comparative  religion,  xv,  27,  52,  311- 
312.  See  Religion. 

Competition,  23. 

Confucius,    195. 

Congenital  transmission,  4.  See  hered- 
ity. 

Co-operation,    22. 

Cornford,  Francis  Macdonald,  quoted, 
162. 

Corn-mother,  74,  78,  97-98.  See  Mother- 
gods. 

Cosmic    and   human   processes,    16,    390- 

393,  396-399.      See    Science    and    re- 
ligion. 

Coulanges,  Fustal  de,   quoted,  173. 
Creative  power  of  group,  59-60,  106-108, 

113,    367-368.      See    Collective    mind. 
Creeds,  323. 
Critical    spirit,     48,     352-354,     360-361, 

372-373,    375,    378-380,    385-386,    388, 

394,  400-402.     See  Science. 

Croce,  Benedetto,   quoted,  374-376. 

Culture    contacts,     48-49.       See    Migra- 
tion. 

Culture-hero,  267-268. 

Culture    influence    on    religion,    232-233, 

311. 

Gushing,  Frank  Hamilton,  quoted,   75. 
Custom,   145,  187-188.     See  Ethical  life. 
Czaplicka,    M.   A.,    quoted,    135-136. 


Dream   societies,    112-113. 

Duality    of    mind    and    body,     109-110, 

398-399.      See    Mind. 
Dualism,   162,   385,   398-399. 
Duchesne,    Louis,    quoted,    257. 
Durkheim,     Emile,     quoted,     26-27,     57, 

365-370. 


E 


Economic  causes,   45. 

Education,   49. 

Eggeling,   Julius,    quoted,    83. 

Egyptian  religion,  36-38,  81,  197-201, 
266,  276-277,  306-307. 

Eleusis,  mystery  of,  24,  67,  97-98,  103. 
See  Demeter  and  Kora. 

Eleusinian  mysteries,  223-225,  234, 
259-260. 

Eliot,  Georg,  271,   351. 

Emerson,    quoted,    281,    309. 

Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics, 
quoted,  127,  219,  265. 

Environment,  change  in,  43.  See  Mi- 
gration. 

Epic  poems,  88-92.  See  Bards  and 
Recitations. 

Ethical  life,  50,  145-147,  329-330.  Se< 
Customs. 

Eucharist,  101-102,  272-273.  See  Com- 
munion, Lord's  Supper  and  Mass. 

Eugenists,   6,   24-26. 

Exogamy,  131-132,  145.  See  Clan  and 
Tribe. 


Dance,  61-63.     See  Song. 

Darwin,    Charles,    14,    353. 

Darwinism  and  religion,  379,  382. 

Davidson,   Thomas,   quoted,   339. 

Delphic  oracle,   55. 

Demeter,    96-97,    210.      See    Eleusinian 
mysteries   and   Kora. 

Democracy   in  religion,   50,   321-332. 

Demonism   in   China,    196. 

Dempsy,    T.,    quoted,    55. 

Dene  or  Athapascans,    78,    140,    150. 

Densmore,    Frances,    quoted,    111-112. 

Deuteronomy,    87. 

Deutsch,   Emanual,   quoted,   283. 

Dharma,   222.      See  Hindu  religion. 

Dionysus,   126,  234. 

Division    of    labor    between    sexes,    163. 
See   Sex. 

Dramatic  form  of  myth,  142.     See  Myth. 

Dramatic  representations,  63.     See  Ritu- 
als. 
Dreams,    71,    111-113. 


Family  Religion,  195-196,  221.     See  An- 

cestor-worship  and  patriarchalism. 
Father-Heaven     and     Mother-Earth,     69, 

76,   95,   97,    157-162,    195-196. 
Female    descent,     130,     149,     154,     165. 

See  Mother-right. 
Female    principle,    274-275.      See    Male 

principle   and   Sex. 
Female    and    male    principles,     160-165, 

178-179. 

Fertility,   225.     See  Female  principle. 
Fertility  of  earth,   soil,   and  women,   95, 

97. 

Fetish,    fetishism,    143.      See   Animism. 
Feudalism,    150-153,    180-181,    195.      See 

Tribe. 

Feudalistic  religion,   181-182. 
Fielding-Hall,    Henry,    quoted,    250-251. 
Finns,    137-138. 
Fiske,    John,    10-12,    342. 
Fletcher,    Alice,     quoted,     120-123,     125- 

126. 
Folk-lore    of    Old    Testament,    203,    255, 

258. 


[412] 


INDEX 


Food-group,  49,  70,  109,  149.     See  Clan. 
Founders  of  culture,   46-47. 
Founders  of  religion,  229,  235,  289-290. 
Frazer,   J.  G.,   quoted,   69,    131,   140-141, 

176-177,   203,   255,    338. 
Freedom    in    religion,    320-323,    378-379, 

400. 
Freud,   Sigmund,  quoted,  31-33. 


Galton,   Francis,    6,    23. 
Gardner,   Percy,   quoted,   256. 
Gautama,   240-243.      See  Buddhism. 
Generation,    creation   by,    69.      See   Fer- 
tility. 
Genius,    5,    104-105,    175,   235-238.      See 

Founders. 

Gilman,   Charlotte  Perkins,   quoted,   352. 

God,    belief    in,    340-347,    355,    356-358, 

361-364,    369,    375,    382-383,    391-392. 

See  Animism  and  Anthropomorphism. 

Also   Monotheism. 

communion  with,   271-375. 
immanence    of,    54. 
Gods,   origin  of,   168-172,   176-177.     See 

Animism   and   Anthropomorphism 
Greek  Art,   226-268.      See  Harrison, 
dramas,   226-228. 

Epics,   88-92.     See  Bards  and  Reci- 
tations. 

idea  of  love,   138. 
religion,    28,    84-86,    105,    162,    171, 

222-228,   304,   377. 
Guardian  animals,   130-134. 

spirits.    130-134. 
Gummere,  Francis,   quoted,   64. 


Hall,   Stanley,   quoted,    3,  276-280. 

Harris,  Rendel,  quoted,  126. 

Harrison,  Jane  Ellen,   quoted,   376-381. 

Hartland    Sidney,    quoted,    262-263. 

Hatch,  Edwin,  quoted,  259. 

Hearn,  William  Edward,   quoted,   173. 

Herd  instinct,   21,    109.     See  Communal 

society. 
Heredity,  congenital,  5-9,   14,  17-19,  23, 

25 

social,     7-9,     14,     20,    23-25.        See 

Tradition. 

Herodotus    on   Greek    gods,    77,    82,    89. 
Hesiod,  -76,  97. 

Hewitt,    J.    N.    B.,    quoted,    142. 
Hinayana,    lesser    vehicle    of   Buddhism, 

246. 
Hindu  religion,   160-161,   165,   222,    315. 

See  Brahmanism  and  Hinduism. 
Holiness,    270. 


Holy  Ghost,   122,  274-275. 

Holy    Grail,    99-103. 

Homer,   88-92,   104-105. 

Homeric  Hymns,  90. 

Hrdlicka,  Ales,   quoted,   139. 

Hudson,  W.  H.,  quoted,  116. 

Humanity,    collective,    as    God,    356-358, 

361-364,    369,    379,    383-384,   392-394. 

See  Collective  mind. 
Humanitarianism,   327,   333,   394. 
Human  progress,   42-51,   48-49. 
Hunting,   149,  154. 
Huxley,  Thomas  H.,  quoted,  16-17,  353. 


Ikhnaton,    36-38. 

Iliad  and  Odyssey,  88-89. 

Imagination,  59,   112-113. 

Imitation,  12-13,  34,  55-56.  See  Sug- 
gestion. 

Immaturity  of  infancy,  10-12,  34-35. 
See  Childhood. 

Immortality,  belief  in,  340-344,  347-352, 
361,  399. 

Incarnation,   244-246. 

Indian  philosophies,  220.  See  Hindu- 
ism. 

Individual  choice  in  religion,  232-233. 
See  Individuality  and  Genius. 

Individual  freedom,  22. 

Individuality,   344-345,   381,   399. 

Individuality  and  congenital  heredity, 
17-19. 

Individuality  in  religion,  29,  56,  113, 
146. 

Individual  originators  of  religions,  229- 
230. 

Individuality,  origin  of  in  religion,  305. 

Infancy,  10-12,  34-35.  See  Immaturity 
of  infancy  and  Childhood. 

Inspiration,     106-107.      See    Revelation. 

Invention  of  tools,   43. 

Invention,    social,    45-46.       See    Genius. 

Ishtar,  76-77,  96,   156,   161-162,  207. 

Isis,   82,   156.    200-201,   210,   234. 

Islam,  281-289,  291,  298.  See  Moham- 
med and  Mohammedanism. 


Jacobi,   H.,   quoted,   219. 

James,  William,  quoted,  v-vi,  29-30,  236, 

238,    339. 

Japanese,   47,    196-197,    318. 
Jee,   Bhagavat   Sinh,    quoted,    160. 
Jesus  Christ,  40,  253-254,  271,  281,  320, 

323-324,   336,   374,   381,   887-388.   See 

Christianity. 
Jevons,    F.   B.,    quoted,    232-233. 


[413] 


INDEX 


Jews,  203-205,  206,  231-232,  235,  251, 
293,  298-300,  306.  See  Semites  and 
Bible. 

Johnston,  Reginald  Fleming,  quoted, 
247-248. 

Jukes   family,    6. 


Kalevala,   92.     See  Finns   and  Lonnrot. 

Karma,  128.     See  Brahmanism. 

Koran,    283-284.      See    Mohammed    and 

Mohammedanism. 

Khu-en-Aten,  36-38.     See  Ikhnaten. 
King,    152,    176-177,    181.      See    Chiefs 

and  Magic. 

as  magician,   176. 
Kings,  divine  right  of,  181.     See  Patri- 

archalism   and   Ancestor-worship. 
Kinship   bond,    145,    151. 
Kora  or  Persephone,   97.     See  Demeter 

and  Eleusinian  mysteries. 
Krishna,    84,    266. 
Kuanyin,  249-250.     See  Chinese  religion. 


Lang,  Andrew,  quoted,  130. 

Language,  how  acquired,  2-3,  9,  33-34, 
119-120. 

Laws,  187-188.  See  Customs  and  Ethi- 
cal life. 

Leuba,  James  H.,  quoted,  340-347,  351, 
352-353. 

Lewes,  George  Henry,  quoted,  109. 

Life-index,    129. 

Lloyd,   on   half  Japan,    quoted,    247. 

Lonnrot,   92.     See  Finns   and  Kalevala. 

Lord  Christ  and  Lord  Buddha,  320. 

Lord's  Supper,  278.  See  Communion 
and  Mass. 


Macdonald,  Arthur  A.,  quoted,  84. 
McDougall,   William,   quoted,    351. 
McTaggart,  John,   quoted,   338. 
Magic,    137-140.      See    Shamanism    and 

Witch. 
Mahabhareta,    83-85,    266.      See   Bhaga- 

vad-gita. 
Mahayana,  greater  vehicle  of  Buddhism, 

246,    248,    256. 
Maine,   Henry,   quoted,   305. 
Male  descent,   130,   149,   154,  163.     See 

Patriarchalism   and   Ancestor-worship. 
Man,    methods    of    progress,    293.      See 

Progress. 

Mana,    121-122,    125,   126.     See  Orenda 
and  Tabu. 


Manu,   code  of,  221. 

Manus,    163-164. 

Marett,   R.   R.,    quoted,    116. 

Margoliouth,   D.   S.,   quoted,   286. 

Mass,  273.     See  Communion  and  Lord's 
Supper. 

Matriarchate,     154-168.       See     Mother- 
right. 

Matriarchal    gods,    96-98.      See   Mother 
gods. 

Maya,    mother    of    Buddha,    249.       See 
Buddhism. 

Medicine-man,    138-139.      See    Shaman- 
ism and  Magic. 

Melanesia,   121-123,   124. 

Men  and  women  in  contrast,   167.     See 
Sex  and  Feminine  principle. 

Migration,  44,  151,  192,  293-297. 

Mind  as  social  product,  22.     See  Collec- 
tive mind  and  Communal  society. 

Mind,    contents    of,    3-4,    22,    24.       See 
Stanley  Hall. 

Miracles,    252,    386.      See    Science    and 
religion. 

Missionary  motive,  230,  313.     See  Uni- 
versal religion. 

Mithraism,  36,  40,  231,  233,  257-258. 

Mohammed,  35,  282-287,  298. 
teachings,  287-289,  316. 

Mohammedanism,    281-289,    316. 
origin  of,   281-282. 
spread   of,    285-286,    316.      See   Is- 
lam and  Koran. 

Monotheism,  origin  of,  37,  205,  300-304. 
See  Anthropomorphism. 

Moses,    289,    302. 

Morality,    145-147,    186-188,    380.      See 
Laws   and  Ethical  principles. 

Mother    and    Maid,    97-98.      See    Kora 
and  Demeter. 

Motherhood,  9.     See  Feminine  principle 
and  Sex. 

Mother  of  God,  207,  252,  275. 

Mother-gods,    156. 

Mother  of  the  gods,  81,  97,  156. 

Mother-right,     154-168.       See     matriar- 
chate  and  Female  descent. 

Murray,  Gilbert,  quoted,  88-92. 

Music,  7,  8,  9.     See  Dance  and  Song. 

Mutual  aid,  22-23.     See  Co-operation. 

Mysteries,    67-68,    98-99,    100-101.      See 
Eleusinian  mysteries. 

Mysticism,    311. 

Myth  as -origin  of  religion,  374-375,  380, 
384. 

Myth  defined,  60,   71-82,   104,   128,   141- 
142,  186. 


Natchez,  Culture  hero  of,  74. 
Natural  selection,  23. 


[414] 


INDEX 


Nature-worship,    392-393. 

Navaho,   Night  Chants  of,   78-81,   150. 

Nibelungun-lied,     93,     103.       See     Epic 

poems. 

Nirvana    (Nibbana),    39. 
Nitze,  William  A.,  quoted,   100-102. 


Occult,  113,  122-124. 

recent  growth  of,   310-311. 
O'Donnell,    Elliott,    quoted,    129. 
Olympic  gods,  94,   126,  224-225. 
Omaha  tribe,  120-121. 
Orenda,    122-123,    126.      See    Mana    and 

Tabu. 
Osborn,    Henry    Fairfield,    quoted,    404- 

409. 
Osiris    and    Isis,     81-82,    171,    200-201. 

See  Isis. 

resurrection   of,    276-278. 


Paternal    origin    of   the    child,    164-165. 

Paternal   society,    154. 

Patria   Potestas,    172-173. 

Patriarchalism,  94-95,  163-164,  16«. 
See  Ancestor-worship. 

Patriotism   as   religion,    327-330. 

Paul,   Saint,   260,   277. 

Pelasgian  or  Aegean  religion,  94-96,  97- 
98.  See  Greek  religion. 

Persian  religion,  212-214,  231. 

Personality  and  social  heredity,  19-20, 
21. 

Philo,    260-261. 

Plato,    164-165,    304. 

Poetry,  social  origin  of,  64.  See  Epic 
poetry. 

Plants  with  souls,  126-127.  See  Totem- 
ism. 

Pneuma,  114.     See  Soul. 

Prakriti,  matter  or  nature,    160-161. 

Priest,   141,    143,    176. 

Property,    44. 

Psychoanalysis,    31. 

Purusha,   mind  or  spirit,    160-161. 

Petrie,  Flinders,  quoted,  201. 


Rationalistic      tendencies,       326.         See 

Science  and   religion. 
Raven  god  of  Tlingit,  129. 
Recitation  of  epic  works,  85,  89,  92.  See 

Bards  and  Epic  poems. 
Religion   and   science,    352-354,    380. 
atrophy  of,   370-373. 


conservatism  of,   27,   237,    308-310. 

definition  of,  1,  29,  41,  52,  109,  123, 

144,  148,  172,  182,  238-239,  289, 

337-340,    265-366,    370-371,    375, 

379,  387. 

founders  of,  35-36. 
Greek,   28. 

growth   of,    292,    308-310,    313-314, 
326,   332-326,   337,   366-367,   371- 
372,    402. 
International  defined,  229,  234-235, 

318-320,  323,   325. 
relations    of    to    social    life,    26-28, 
39-42,      52-55,      61-62,      141-145, 
182-183. 

universality    of,    viii,    291-294. 
Resurrection,    106-108,    237-238,    308. 

of  Christ,  275-280. 
Revelation,    106-108,   237-238,   308.    See 

Inspiration. 

Ribot,    T.   A.,    quoted,    59. 
Ridgeway,  William,  quoted,   170-171. 
Richard,   Timothy,   quoted,    247. 
Rignano,    Eugenio,    quoted,    970-373. 
Rig-veda,  82-83,  85,  216-217.  See  Vedas. 
Rituals,    religious,    68,    78,    81,   98,    141- 

143,    144,    145.      See   Symbolism. 
River   valleys,    191. 
Roman  religion,   172,   233-234. 
Russia,    319. 


Sacra,  173-174. 

Sacred  things,  124-125,  145,  312-313, 
317. 

Sacred  books,   85,   86-87,   106-107. 

Sacrifice,  viii-ix,  219-220,  267,  269, 
308. 

to  the   dead   134. 
to  the  gods,   144. 

Salvation,  xiii,   308. 

Schiller,  F.   C  S.,   quoted,   347-351. 

Science,  methods  of,  47.  See  Rational- 
istic tendencies. 

and    religion,     307,     324-326,     372, 
376,   388-389. 

Self-consciousness,  socially  developed, 
21.  See  Collective  mind  and  collec- 
tive Soul. 

Sellars,    Roy  Wood,    quoted,    384-388. 

Semites,  201-208,  295.  See  Jews  and 
Babylonians. 

Sex,  154,  166-167.  See  Feminine  prin- 
ciple. 

control   of,    69. 

Shah  Nameh,  93. 

Shaman,    119,    135,    139-140. 

Shamanism,  135-140,  143-144.  See 
Magic  and  Medicine-man. 

Showerman,   Grant,   quoted,   257-258. 


[415] 


INDEX 


Siberian  religion,   119,   139.     See  Sham- 
anism. 

Sin,   theory  of,   268-270. 
Slavery,   45,    163,    168.      See  War. 
Slavs,    208.      See   Russia. 
Smith,   George  Adam,    quoted,   299-300. 
Social  custom,   46-47,  49,   145,   149,   187. 

See    Laws    and    Ethical    principle. 
Social  process,   4-5,   7,    15,   20,   49,   109, 

149. 
Society,    nature    of,     367-369,     371-372. 

See  social  process. 
Song     62-64,    112-123,    138. 
Soul,    113-114,    222.      See  Animism   and 

Anthropomorphism. 

collective,    57,    109,    113-144. 
Speck     Frank    G.,    quoted,    338. 
Spencer     Herbert,    quoted,    169-170. 
Spiritual  beliefs,  117-120.    See  Animism 
Spiritual    world,    nature    of,    402-403. 
State,    153,    184,    190.      See    Tribe    and 

Feudalism. 

influence   of   on   religion,    229,    301, 

193-194. 

Status  or  birth  in  religion,  232-233,  305. 
Suggestion,   13.     See  imitation. 
Superman,    24-26.      See   Eugenics. 
Supreme  Self,   221.     See  Hinduism. 
Symbolism,    143-144. 
Syncretism    in    religion,     235,    247-249 

251,    255-256,    260-261. 


Tabu  (tapu  or  taboo),  124-125,  145, 
167.  See  Mana  and  Orenda. 

Tammuz,  76.     See  Ishtar. 

Tarde,  Gabriel,   quoted,  12-13. 

Territory  as  social  bond,  152.  See 
Blood-bond  and  Social  Contacts. 

Teutonic  religion,  211-212. 

Theology,  374-375,  377-378,  379-380, 
385-386,  388,  395-396,  400.  See 
Religion. 

Theosophy,    314-315.      See    Hinduism. 

Thesmophoria,  223.     See  Greek  religion. 

Thomas,   Northcote  W.,   quoted,    127. 

Toleration  and  free  inquiry,  48.  See 
Science  and  religion  and  Rationistic 
tendencies. 

Totemism,    32,    130-131. 

Tradition,  46,  49,  184.  See  Social 
heredity. 

Transmission,  congenital,  4-7.  See 
heredity. 

social,  4,  7-9.     See  Social  heredity. 

Trees,    126.      See    Totemism. 

Tribal  contacts,  44,  49,  151.  See  Mi- 
gration and  Amalgamation. 


Tribe,    formation   of,    149-151. 
Trinity,    274-275. 

Tylor,     Edward     B.,     quoted,     115-117, 
loo* 


Unbelief,    341,    347. 

Unclean     or     impure,     124,     145. 

Tabu. 
Universalist  Leader,  quoted,   351. 


See 


Vedas,     341-347.       See     Rig-Veda     and 

Aryans. 

Virgin-birth.    251-252     262-264. 
Virgin    Mary,    210,    248-250,    275.      See 

Isis. 
Vyasa    reputed  author  of  Mahabharata, 

83,   85. 


Wakonda,  120-121,  126.  See  Orenda 
also  Mana. 

War  social  effects  of,  44,  151-152,  163, 
168  192. 

Weismann,   August    quoted.    8-9,    15. 

Wells,  H.  G.,  quoted,  339,  359-365,  395. 

Werewolves     129. 

Weston,  Jessie  L.,  quoted    99-100. 

Wheel  of  existence    222.    See  Buddhism. 

Wiedermann     A.,    quoted,    265. 

Wissler,   Clark,  quoted    141. 

Witch    129,   210.      See   Shamanism. 

Woman,  head  of  family,  155.  See 
Mother-right,  Matriarchate,  and  Fem- 
inine principle. 

Women  43  45,  74.  95-96.  154-159 
162-166,  167,  173-175,  192-193,  345- 
346. 

Word,   119-120.     See  Language. 


Yahweh,   203-205. 

Yang,  male  principle  in  China,  178,  214. 
Yin     female    principle    in    China     178. 
Younghusband,     Francis,     quoted,     355- 

359. 
Youth.   12-13,  40,  42.     See  Infancy  and 

Childhood. 

Z 

Zeus,   98,   224.      See  Greek   religion. 
Zoroaster    (Zarathustra)    212-214.      See 

Persian  religion. 
Zuni,    75-76. 


[416] 


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